A Marina Abramovich game has been created in which you walk to the MoMA, and proceed to wait and wait and wait to see Marina. In fact, when I played the game, the museum wasnt even open yet, so I had to sit at my computer patiently waiting for the gallery to open. Once inside, I would have to wait hours to literally see Marina. It seemed immensely pointless and futile, but made me think about the real people who queued for days and days outside to see Marina. Was it really just to see and experience the performance Art? or was it actually just to witness the celebrity Marina? This concerns me somewhat. Is there any difference in queuing to see Marina as there is to see Lady Gaga for a signing? The poignance of the piece could be argued to be lost. In fact the whole documentary of The Artist is Present distressed me a little.  The swarms of bodyguards stopping anyone who tried to do anything outside the tight rule and regulations of the performance (one man wore a picture frame on his face, whilst another woman stripped naked)  seemed worlds away from the naked Marina Abramovich carving a pentagram into her abdomen. It’s not to say that Marina herself has lost her edge, but instead the world around her that has been created is distorted by her popularity and fame.

Performance Art will always been somewhat underground and niche. When it reaches the mainstream in Marina’s case, does it really work? Is something lost?

Image from http://artobserved.com/tag/marina-abramovic/