Marina Abramovic's extreme performance art in two documentaries

NETFLIX-ARTE.TV - ON DEMAND - DOCUMENTARIES

There is no longer any need to introduce Marina Abramovic (born 1946), nor is there any need to introduce Robert – or Bob, depending on the case and the era – Wilson (born 1941): Both have been major names in the avant-garde scene since the 1970s and are versatile in the expression of their art, which has reached a vast audience. Their confrontation was both risky and inevitable: It took place in 2011 on the occasion of a show whose plot is the life of the Serbian artist now settled in the United States, The Life and Death of Marina Abramovic.

But how would the all-too-much-ego and very strong personality of Abramovic, famous for her extreme performance art, fit with the conceptual and poetic universe of the director – a visual artist, designer of the (essential) lights of his shows and also a former dancer – known for his aversion to naturalism?

Truth be told, it seems to have worked like a charm, if we are to believe the people involved themselves, filmed as part of Giada Colagrande's 2012 Netflix documentary Bob Wilson's Life & Death of Marina Abramovic. These also include transgender British singer Anohni, still known by her birth name Antony Hegarty at the time of filming, and American actor Willem Dafoe.

For the occasion, Abramovic made herself small and humble, but with her affectionate touch. She cried in front of the camera, rehashed her childhood wounds and talked of her life as a martyr who became a saint after finding the path to freedom and happiness. No: Not happiness, which she found too boring and limited. She looked for more, in listening and self-control and getting back to simplicity. Otherwise, she said, "we will lose ourselves."

Disciples

Now a guru, the Serbian has developed the "Abramovic Method" (challenged in a lengthy 2010 investigation by the New Yorker) and propagates it through disciples trained to carry the good word into the future, especially among the classical music audience. What Andreas Gräfenstein filmed for Abramovic was L'art de l'écoute ("The Art of Listening," 2019), a documentary being rebroadcast by French-German public service channel Arte.

As Abramovic only does things in a big way, the floor of the Alte Oper in Frankfurt was transformed into a bare stage. Through body relaxation, some of the audience withdraws from the surrounding world, extraneous noises and technological devices. They empty themselves in order to welcome the fullness of the music.

It all has an air of new age déjà vu about it, and the seriousness surrounding the experience is sometimes reminiscent of the hilarious parody by the pranksters in Documentary Now (on Netflix), where Cate Blanchett plays Izabella Barta, a heavily accented (as sadistic as it is masochistic) performer who only clears the air by fulfilling herself.

The problem is that when one hears violinist Carolin Widmann play a Sonata by Eugène Ysaÿe in an imperfect manner, one is quickly reminded of reality. On the other hand, when cellist Nicolas Altstaedt plays a Bach Sarabande, it is he who creates the mystery, the silence around him, that no preparatory relaxation can ever match.