marinaabramaviclush
Having missed the previous week, I was keen to get back in to Site-Specific and broaden my understanding on the topic, and upon learning that we would be watching “The Artist Is Present”, a Documentary about a large piece in the Museum of Modern Art showing a collection and several reperformances of Marina Abramovic’s work, I was even more eager to get to the seminar later in the day as I had heard of Marina Abramovic’s work previously (Specifically Rhythm 0 and The Great Wall Walk). Rhythm 0 is a piece of her’s that really astounded me when I first heard of it, I felt that it’s trial of the relationship between Audience and Performer was truly fascinating to read about. The observation of the audience beginning very modestly and being gentle with what they were doing and then becoming more aggressive with their actions as time went on Marina remained passive is a huge comment on human nature and the way we react to the oppurtunity to hurt someone who won’t fight back. Another part of Rhythm 0 that really struck me was her pure dedication to the performance, and it is something that has clearly inspired several performance artists and site-specific performances, one performance I feel was inspired by this is a piece that took place in the window of Regent Street’s “Lush” store, where a 24 year old woman was subjected to several experiments that would be performed on animals during the testing of cosmetic products. I feel the artist was not inspired by Rhythm 0 itself but more Abramovic’s dedication and stamina within Rhythm 0, and from what I learned after watching “The Artist is Present”, her full dedication to all of her pieces.

I am still unsure as to whether I truly do understand what makes a performance Site-Specific, but I do believe that I am gaining a better understanding of it the further we progress through the module, as I’m sure is intended. At the moment, I feel what makes a performance Site-Specific is that that performance is directly drawing influence and inspiration from it’s location, for example, the piece we will begin working on for the final performance should be specifically be performed only in Art Galleries.