Photographer Christopher Wahl focuses on Marina Abramović in Toronto during RAFF 2012 / photo Christopher Wahl
Conceived as a satellite to her yet-to-be-built Marina Abramović Institute (MAI) in Hudson, New York, MarinaAbramovićInstitute – Prototype is being billed as the largest expression mounted to date of what the artist calls the Marina Abramović Method.
As Abramović told Canadian Art in a 2012 interview, the Marina Abramović Method aims to “teach students how to condition themselves for long-duration performances,” while the institute will also train audiences in how to experience such works.
The MarinaAbramovićInstitute – Prototype installation will consist of seven interconnected pavilions in Trinity Bellwoods Park, where the audience will participate in a series of exercises and experiences based on Abramović’s performance practice. During the performances, which will be ticketed, the pavilions will be open from 7 to 16 hours a day.
Every 30 minutes, four pre-booked participants will be able to join the performance. Participants will wear white lab coats and headphones to disconnect themselves from the outside world for a period of approximately two hours. Instructions will be given over the headphones in a selection of seven different languages. The public’s experiences will also be livestreamed, and each participant will receive a certificate signed by Abramović as a memento of their involvement.
Luminato artistic director Jorn Weisbrodt describes MAI-Prototype as “a two hour experience that draws from her immense body of work, and makes the audience the active part of the work of art.”
Abramović is also co-creator of the theatrical production The Life and Death of Marina Abramović, which will be having its North American premiere at Luminato 2013.
Other art experiences on the Luminato roster, released today, include STOCKPILE, a life-sized rendering of an arcade-style claw machine featuring Canadian artists Dean Baldwin, Brendan Fernandes, Diane Landry, Luanne Martineau, Divya Mehra, Graeme Patterson, Ed Pien, Charles Stankievech, and Mitchell Wiebe as “the claw.” During open hours at Brookfield Place, the public is invited to manipulate the artists into delivering the prize they desire. It is co-curated by Denise Markonish of MASS MoCA, who curated the exhibition “Oh, Canada.”
