Sheffield Doc/Fest: Films A-Z

Marina Abramovic The Artist is Present

Director(s):

Matthew Akers

Producer(s):

Maro Chermayeff, Jeff Dupre
- United States
- 2012
- 105 min
- HDCAM 1080/23.98p
- English

By Marina Abramović's reckoning, it took about forty years before people stopped thinking she was insane. Abramović has spent decades evolving startling, original boundary-exploding performance art, pushing her body to extremes. We follow the still glamorous artist in the most important year of her career – as the prestigious NYC’s Museum of Modern Art mounts a major retrospective. Determined to silence the question “but why is this art?” once and for all, she has planned a typically shocking centrepiece: all day, every day, for nearly three months, she will sit in the museum’s atrium. Members of the audience are invited to join her, one at a time, to sit silently with her and share her energy, yielding emotionally charged scenes captured with skill by director Matthew Akers. The film delves back in time to explore Abramović 's career, including her intense 12-year relationship with fellow performance artist Ulay, who after two decades is now back on the scene.