Crowds on Friday flocked to Serbian artist Marina Abramovic’s first show in Shanghai, where they were encouraged to become part of the artworks in an “absolutely fully interactive” spectacle.
Abramovic, 77, made her name as a pioneering conceptual and performance artist with feats including a 90-day walk along the Great Wall of China in 1988, but this show — her largest ever — is her first in the country.
“I never thought she would exhibit in China,” said visitor Nikki Yang, 43, who had previously seen Abramovic’s work in New York. “The latitude and perspective of [her work] are incredible; I think she’s great.”
Photo: AFP
Abramovic has said the exhibition, “Transforming Energy,” is “very different than any show ever made,” and “very radical.”
It features videos and photographs from her Great Wall walk, as well as new pieces embedded with Brazilian crystals.
Abramovic is best known for her performance work, including 2010’s The Artist is Present, in which she sat unmoving across a table from more than 1,500 visitors over months at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Photo: AFP
In the new exhibition, hundreds of visitors were transformed into performers, urged to follow the instructions that accompany most of the artwork.
“The artwork is incomplete unless the audience is connecting to it ... each and every item of this exhibition is inviting our audience to participate in it,” exhibition curator Shai Baitel said.
As part of the artwork Counting the Rice, visitors sat at small tables and separated black and white grains of rice, counting the number of each color and writing the results on a piece of paper they were instructed to take home.
Photo: AFP
On one floor, visitors were asked to don noise-canceling headphones, while performing actions such as repeatedly opening and closing a door or immersing themselves in a tub of dried flowers.
Yang Shangxuan, 24, said he was especially struck by a work that invited visitors to stand in front of wooden poles holding crystals.
“I closed my eyes to feel the energy of the crystals, and even though I couldn’t feel that, I felt very relaxed,” he said.
The death of a former head of China’s one-child policy has been met not by tributes, but by castigation of the abandoned policy on social media this week. State media praised Peng Peiyun (彭珮雲), former head of China’s National Family Planning Commission from 1988 to 1998, as “an outstanding leader” in her work related to women and children. The reaction on Chinese social media to Peng’s death in Beijing on Sunday, just shy of her 96th birthday, was less positive. “Those children who were lost, naked, are waiting for you over there” in the afterlife, one person posted on China’s Sina Weibo platform. China’s
‘NO COUNTRY BUMPKIN’: The judge rejected arguments that former prime minister Najib Razak was an unwitting victim, saying Najib took steps to protect his position Imprisoned former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak was yesterday convicted, following a corruption trial tied to multibillion-dollar looting of the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) state investment fund. The nation’s high court found Najib, 72, guilty on four counts of abuse of power and 21 charges of money laundering related to more than US$700 million channeled into his personal bank accounts from the 1MDB fund. Najib denied any wrongdoing, and maintained the funds were a political donation from Saudi Arabia and that he had been misled by rogue financiers led by businessman Low Taek Jho. Low, thought to be the scandal’s mastermind, remains
Shamans in Peru on Monday gathered for an annual New Year’s ritual where they made predictions for the year to come, including illness for US President Donald Trump and the downfall of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. “The United States should prepare itself because Donald Trump will fall seriously ill,” Juan de Dios Garcia proclaimed as he gathered with other shamans on a beach in southern Lima, dressed in traditional Andean ponchos and headdresses, and sprinkling flowers on the sand. The shamans carried large posters of world leaders, over which they crossed swords and burned incense, some of which they stomped on. In this
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday announced plans for a national bravery award to recognize civilians and first responders who confronted “the worst of evil” during an anti-Semitic terror attack that left 15 dead and has cast a heavy shadow over the nation’s holiday season. Albanese said he plans to establish a special honors system for those who placed themselves in harm’s way to help during the attack on a beachside Hanukkah celebration, like Ahmed al-Ahmed, a Syrian-Australian Muslim who disarmed one of the assailants before being wounded himself. Sajid Akram, who was killed by police during the Dec. 14 attack, and
RSS