In Marina Abramovic’s video Four Performances, she has chosen to use her body to demonstrate four different points: 1. Art must be beautiful, Artist must be beautiful. 2. Freeing the voice. 3. Freeing the memory. 4. Freeing the body. I feel that in this video, shes pushing her body to it’s limits by doing these performances. In the reading from Institutions and Objections, Lea Vergine states her opinion that, “Those who are in pain will tell you that they have the right to be taken seriously.” I think that’s an interesting statement. Somehow pain makes it art? Chris Burden is a good example for this. His video of being shot in the arm is considered performance art. As far as Marina Abramovic’s work is concerned, I think its a test of physical endurance. She’s using her body as art, but pushing her abilities. For example, in the video she “frees her voice” by singing out a note for a very extended amount of time. Most people wouldn’t be willing to, or capable of doing that. On the other end of the scale, for “freeing her body” she dances naked. Its basically her using her body as her canvas.
In the article, the section on Marina Abramovic talks about other performance pieces that she has done. She did a performance where she stands in a doorway naked, making people have to walk around her. I find that project to be particularly funny. I think the sociology aspect is very interesting because most people refused to even look her in the face. I’m assuming it was her purpose to incur human response by standing naked. I think her performances using her body are very successful. Using her body allows her to touch on the issues of gender roles and the personal boundaries people set for themselves.
