Seven Easy Pieces by Marina Abramovic

In November 2005, Marina Abramovic repeated five performances from the 1960s and 1970s by her colleague artists and two works by herself in the Guggenheim Museum in New York. This physical tour de force lasted a week: each day Abramovic did another performance that lasted seven hours. These were Bruce Naumann’s Body Pressure (1974), Vito Acconci’s Seedbed (1972), Valie EXPORT’s Action Pants, Genital Panic (1969), Gina Pane’s The Conditioning, first action of Self-Portrait(s) (1973) and Joseph Beuys’ How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare (1965). She completed the cycle with her own Lips of Thomas (1975) and the new Entering the Other Side (2005).
The experimental film maker Mangolte, who had in the past photographed and filmed many performances and dance shows, recorded the tour de force by Abramovic on film. In detail, she shows the vulnerability, versatility and determination of the human body during this transcendental experience.
Alongside anaesthetic reflection and a proof of the power of interaction with the audience, the film of Abramovic’ repeats is also an investigation into the representation and conservation of an art form that is by definition fleeting. Little is documented about the original performances, we often had to rely on witness statements or the occasional photo.