‘I am thinking a lot about next year, and what is my next step. I am preparing something that I should not talk about because that is bad luck,’ Marina Abramović told us last year of our mono.kultur #35 – meaning that ‘next year’ is now, and indeed, today is the first day of Abramović’s new performance piece at London’s Serpentine Gallery.
What Marina will do, is doing right now actually, is not quite clear, apart that she will spend 512 hours – meaning there are about 506 more hours to go at the point of writing, my dear – on the premises, interacting with the audience in some undefined way. ‘It is this journey towards immateriality that has led her to this unique moment in her work, where she will commit to an unscripted and improvised performance in the gallery space,’ as the website says. Furthermore, ‘The public will become the performing body, participating in the delivery of an unprecedented moment in the history of performance art.’
And while gushing press releases all too often have the effect to kill your desire to participate in anything, really, knowing Marina, chances are it will be amazing.
Marina Abramović: 512 Hours
11 June – 25 August 2014
Serpentine Gallery
Kensington Gardens
London W2 3XA
UK
Photography by Marco Anelli
