The artist as a public figure in the media: the example of Marina Abramovic

Marina Abramović is one of the artists whose work attracts considerable media interest. This is partly because she is one of the leading contemporary artists of the 21st century , and partly because there is regularly a great deal to report about the kind of art Marina Abramović creates.

Or rather, there would be a lot to report; the following is a brief examination of the actual reporting on Marina Abramović to see how often exactly that doesn't happen .

Since this is not about the historical press landscape, but about current events, the following examples come from the press of the last 15 years.

Since this is not a scientific study, but rather a way to stimulate thought, the first 10 articles that the search engine returned for the name were chosen at random. From these, example sentences were selected, sorted alphabetically and deliberately without source citations, because the aim is not to presume a quality assessment, but rather to offer a glimpse into the current state of affairs :

“I’m so glad ,” she says, slumped in her chair, her black hair pulled back tightly, “I’m so glad it’s over now.”

She never stops performing.”,

says the curator.

She loves the world. And she seduces everyone.”

Born in 1946 in communist Yugoslavia, she was in a long-term relationship with the German performance artist Ulay and traveled the world with him.

Abramović clearly believes in the MAI as the house for future art. No groundbreaking news there.

Abramović and Ulay are NOT seeing each other for the first time in 30 years at this moment; they are NOT at the MoMA for their actual reunion and are not crying at all.

Abramović is attempting to gain recognition from the international art scene with this sparkling mixture of horrific human compassion and a stale design atmosphere.

Abramović, guru and drill sergeant in one, devised a beautiful program for her consisting of fasting, skinny dipping and sitting blindfolded in the forest.

Abramović's refined kitsch of misery plays on the ignorant, semi-educated Western art enthusiast.

Abramović's great-grandmother summoned the entire family to her deathbed to watch her die. However, she went on living, for a while, despite her best intentions.

Abramović's maternal Great Grandmother put every pot on the stove and filled them with water to create the illusion of a plentiful kitchen.

Abramović's mother forced her to eat horse-meat.

Abramović's parents celebrated her birthday on Yugoslavia Republic day. Yugoslavia Republic day is not Abramović's birthday.

Everyone should see, should know, that even now, when she is so famous, when Robert Redford raves about her just as much as Lady Gaga, when Time magazine chose her as one of the 100 most important people of 2014, when she almost feels like a brand herself, like Coca-Cola, as she says, universally known, omnipresent, that despite all this she remains rooted in and committed to the here and now.

Apparently, hardly anyone bothers to do further research or to engage with Marina Abramović; instead, this kitschy video, which states on text panels that Ulay came to the opening without Abramović knowing (which is also not true) and that this is the first time they have seen each other again, is even embellished and served to readers as the truth.

As an infant Abramović was carried across town every day in order that she could be breast-fed by her mother. Abramović says she was never breast-fed.

On top of a stack of books lies a book about etiquette.

Both are in extreme situations, experiencing their limits. She voluntarily through her artistic performances. He involuntarily through his illness with acute leukemia.

She didn't say a word, but simply looked at the person opposite her, which triggered very intense feelings in many, and some even began to cry.

Danica Abramović (Abramović's mother) never kissed the young Marina, fearing it would spoil her.

The living room is sparsely but modernly furnished, flooded with light and extremely tidy.

Marina Abramović's development is more disturbing than her most extreme actions.

The quotes themselves are the message. Please let them linger on your tongue, circulate in your mind.

He's a rapper, entrepreneur, billionaire, husband, father, and a close friend of the current White House, but only now do we know that the man who began his career as a drug dealer is also deeply bourgeois. Jay-Z collects receipts.

"Only in illness does the true person reveal themselves," said the cleaning lady on the cancer ward. But then it's usually too late, especially with cancer and other fatal diseases. Inhale this article today.

“It takes so long to be taken seriously ,” Marina Abramović says to the camera, and then she laughs her friendly, open laugh.

There is no doubt that Marina Abramović and Ulay shared a very special love, which could hardly have been more intense.

Born in communist Yugoslavia, the daughter of two party officials who never had time, were always on duty, always on the go, who, as she remembers, never hugged or kissed their Marina, she became an artist of perseverance and endurance.

The main attraction of the exhibition entitled “The Artist is Present” was, as one would hardly expect, Marina Abramović herself.

Today, Abramović, who in her mid-60s still looks like she's in her early 40s, is considered "the grandmother of performance art." And grandmothers are always taken seriously.

She can only hug the occasional tree; she can no longer tolerate any closer contact.

I have heard Marina Abramović publicly claim she created Performance Art; a typically grand claim by Abramović.
Throughout the conversation, she repeatedly runs both hands over her forehead and cheeks, a caress, a self-encouragement.

In Abramović's 2010 show at the New York "Museum of Modern Art," the artist sat in a room of the exhibition (which was dedicated to her work) for seven hours every day for three months, and every visitor could sit opposite her and spend time with her.

In the summer of 1977 Ulay and Abramović island-hopped around the Adriatic, sunbathing and picnicking naked on the beaches.

Interview question: Did you feel ashamed during your childhood?

Interview question: Today you are among the most important contemporary artists.

Is this performance art? you may have asked yourself when Maria Abramović launched a Kickstarter campaign last week to fund her new art center. Surely that's how it'll be written off—if the project fails to reach its $600,000 goal.

Jay Z exposes the emptiness of Marina Abramović

Can the artist Marina Abramović help Guido Westerwelle beat his leukemia? Our columnist is convinced she can.

Column, in red: Famous last words; in grey capitals: What Guido Westerwelle can learn from Marina Abramović.
Art? Or merely the successor business of a once exciting artist who has lost her way in the intellectual wasteland of her celebrity world?

One could say that Ulay is subconsciously struggling with jealousy because his ex-girlfriend is so successful.

Some call her the grandmother of performance art: more radically than any other artist, she made her body her medium, hitting herself, cutting herself, exploring the limits of what was bearable.

Marina Abramović opens the door to her New York apartment wearing a black dressing gown and slippers. Her long black hair is loose.

Marina Abramović, the world's only household name performance artist — Shia LaBeouf notwithstanding — is being sued by her former collaborator and lover, the German artist Ulay.

Might Abramović's death be Performance Art? And, not to cheapen said event in any way, where can we get tickets?
After this experience, one is at best perplexed, as the MAI prototype proves to be a disjointed mix of fragmentary yoga and meditation exercises garnished with esoteric hocus-pocus.

[After many words about a completely different topic]: The real insight gained from this little episode is that the entire “Picasso Baby” idea was a stupid idea from the start.

Naturally, you're wondering what the internationally renowned performance artist Marina Abramović and the German politician Guido Westerwelle have in common?

Although the idea of ​​having Marina Abramović, the world's most famous performance artist, recently named one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people of the year, a woman known for many things but certainly not for domestic skills, fry scrambled eggs is tempting, we agree on tea.

Of course, Abramović isn't too thrilled about this feud over “the third,” especially as an artist who's previously been reluctant to pay her workers.

Without Ulay, Marina Abramović struggled to develop new ideas, and probably for that reason sought the help of director Charles Atlas, with whom she realized the stage play “Biography”.

OMA's early drawings (for the MAI) seem more closely related to the firm's forays into display and shop design than that of their large-scale cultural institutions.

[Platform for design, street culture and trends]: Abramović and Ulay did NOT meet at MoMA for the first time in 30 years!

Since then, Marina Abramović, born in Belgrade in 1946, who gave exciting and dangerously self-destructive performances in the 60s and 70s, almost dying more than once, never having any money and living in a caravan for years, has become famous and celebrated and may even earn real money.

She even smiles, the girlishly cheeky smile of a 67-year-old.

They lived for their art, were radical, intimate, and had the deepest feelings for each other.

She was the hysterical child of socialist parents, a victim of a cold-hearted mother, the beautiful, young prima donna of a male-dominated art scene.

The arguments between Abramović's parents were relentless and violent.

The scheme (for the MAI), with a no-holds-barred minimalism that's somewhat reminiscent of the “white void” prison chamber in THX-1138, essentially guts an old civic building in the Hudson River town.

For over three months, every morning, punctually at ten, she opens the glass double doors of the gallery, steps out as if she were the lady of the house, and greets every visitor, looks at them, and shakes their hand.

On multiple souls within us: “There are several Marinas. There is one Marina, (…), who knows no limits, is strong-willed, and achieves every goal. Right next to her is another Marina, a little girl, (…), very vulnerable and incredibly disappointed and sad. Then there is the one who possesses this spiritual wisdom and is above it all. That is my favorite.”

For many years they led a “simple” life, but with complete radicalism for their performance art and their unique love.

Headline: “Vivaldi against a sad childhood” , Subtitle: “Marina Abramović suffered as a child from her arguing parents. To escape reality, she invented her own world.”

Our lived life is the anvil that forges us into a mighty sword and at the same time a precious jewel – if we ourselves, the smith, are only talented enough to make this happen.

Variously placed crystals are said to conduct energies, and sitting or lying on angular wooden furniture is supposed to help with concentration.

From radical performance artist to society shaman.

When the quotes mention 'performance' , 'the artist is present' , or 'work' , please mentally replace these with 'chemotherapy' . Please replace the 'artist' in the quote with 'cancer patient' .

When Marina Abramović promises a Bauhaus, an international meeting place […] one has to fear for her sense of reality in light of the actual circumstances.

We then talk about her breast augmentation, lasers as a method for combating wrinkles, and the Marina Abramović Institute for Performance Art, which she recently founded. We speak English, and in her enduring Eastern European accent, the H's sound like guttural Ch's.

Currently, Harper's Bazaar on its website that Marina Abramović is revealing the list of the “10 TOP Young Artists to watch” , but while browsing the young artists, the American site is cluttered with German advertising, so that the other important messages of the site, the “TOP 10 Anti Aging Creams”, the “10 Best Eyebrow Products”, the “10 Must Have Dresses for Women”, information about “Cute Plus Size Clothing” and “How to Burn 1000 Calories in an hour” (? Chop off a leg?) unfortunately hardly get any attention.

Harper's Bazaar magazine belongs to the Hearst Corporation, which also gives us other important publications such as CosmoGIRL!, Good Housekeeping, House Beautiful, O at Home (RIP since 2008, but O, The Oprah Magazine still exists), Quick & Simple and Veranda (it's also about the rooms behind it), and being able to burn 1000 calories in an hour would certainly be a benefit for many people; it just seems a little questionable whether the future young TOP artists are really presented in a suitable environment here.

All the cited articles have one thing in common: they are about one of the most remarkable contemporary artists – but we learn something about her art perhaps in a subordinate clause, mostly nothing at all.

Many authors harshly criticize Abramović in their articles, usually with negative connotations; her terrible childhood is an established and never questioned stereotype, making it quite easy to write articles.

None of the authors have conducted thorough research on her art. Neither her past art is mentioned or explained, nor do her future plans (Marina Abramović Institute, the Abramović Method, see also the article “Marina Abramović: Art for Destructive Societies” ) play any role other than providing a framework for derogatory and even offensive remarks about the artist.

There's no need to fear Abramović's sense of reality; her crowdfunding campaign far exceeded its goal. This goal is the reason for the next round of harsh criticism, but surely people who have already earned money in their lives should also be able to use crowdfunding to achieve ambitious, potentially socially relevant goals that are beyond their own financial means (after all, the crowdfunding community decides what constitutes relevance).

If that weren't the case, crowdfunding would be degraded into a financing forum for "poor people" (when is a person "poor enough" for crowdfunding?), who might even be stigmatized accordingly, while the actual goal should be to enable the financing of good ideas (for all or many) regardless of social standing.

There are certainly publications that deal more closely with the artistic work of Marina Abramović (some are mentioned in these articles about the artist Marina Abramović), but media coverage of artists remains surprisingly often and to a surprising extent completely superficial, limiting itself to a few media-effective or otherwise convenient aspects of the person.

This is also related to the fact that reporting in an increasingly digital world tends to serve readers easily digestible snippets. In many newsrooms, the battle over article length is now the norm, and the journalist who conducts thorough research and examines a topic from multiple perspectives very often loses.

It all has to be free, the information should be provided without charge – how the person who carefully compiles this information is supposed to make a living remains an open secret. Easy-to-swallow snippets aren't particularly nutritious… and demonstrate a lack of respect for the reader, because they aren't trusted to read more than half a page at a time.

Those who have been able to distinguish advertisements from editorial text and ideologically or otherwise biased opinions from thoroughly researched accounts will get further with advertising-funded information; those who have never learned this should probably pay more often for detailed and independent information so that they don't spend their lives as a guessing game.

But for many people, art is a matter of passion, and so there are countless informative, crazy, funny and stimulating articles about art available for free on the internet; there is also much more going on on the Kunstplaza blog.