Rylee

Hi my name is Rylee! I am a student in the batcher of arts health and wellness program at guelph university!

The Artist Is Present – Movie Questions

Questions for discussion:

1. What are some of your first impressions of Marina Abramovic’s performance works, based on the documentary? Use an image/example of one or two works to describe aspects you admire, and aspects you might agree are problematic? One aspect I admire is her fearlessness, particularly in Rhythm 5, where she lies inside a burning five-pointed star. The act is visually very powerful. At the same time, some of her work feels deeply problematic, especially performances involving cutting and self-inflicted harm, such as Rhythm 0. While the intent is to expose audience psychology, power, and violence, the escalation into physical injury raises ethical concerns. The line between artistic exploration and self-harm becomes blurred. I believe self harm shouldn’t be normalized as an art form because it’s using the act itself as an art form when realistically it’s a world problem that needs helping. You don’t have to do the act and abuse yourself publicly for it to be moving. That just seems emotionally harming to the artist and audience experiencing somebody go through this real pain. Rather than inviting reflection alone, these moments can risk normalizing or sensationalizing harm in the name of art.
2. What have you learned about features of performance art based on Abramovic’s work? Name a few key features according to her examples. Include an image to illustrate. Consider her quote “When you perform it is a knife and your blood, when you act it is a fake. knife and ketchup.” In my opinion this quote clearly shows that a performance uses real materials, real pain, and real consequences. Nothing is staged or pretend. Performance art breaks through the barrier of art not being a reality and only an act or simulation representing something, it is not an act you are in it and feeling the presence of the message being voiced through this art. Performance art involves genuine risk. The outcome is not fully controlled, which creates tension and makes the audience aware that what they are witnessing could go wrong. Viewers are not just observers. Abramović often invites or allows the audience to participate, making them partly responsible for what happens during the performance. so whats going on itsint all planned because nobody can predict what the observers will do. Performance art, as shown through Abramović’s work, collapses the distance between art and life. It demands presence, confronts discomfort, and forces viewers to recognize that what they are seeing is not representation. Its a reality happening in front of them.
3. Discuss the ways performance art resists many museum and commercial artworld conventions. How does Abramovic solve/negotiate some of these challenges, and do you find. Do these compromises add to, or undermine the ideas at play in her work? Performance art resists museum and commercial artworld conventions because it is temporary, embodied, and experiential, rather than object-based. It cannot easily be owned, sold, or permanently displayed, and it often involves real risk, unpredictability, and direct audience engagement, which conflicts with the controlled environment of museums. To me, it almost feels like a social experiment, testing both the artist and the audience. Giving people the choice to participate or respond in real time pushes the boundaries of what we usually think art is. In Abramović’s case, she works around these challenges through documentation, re-performance, and working with institutions so the work can continue to exist after the live moment. Even though this reduces some of the raw danger of her earlier performances, I think it adds to the work by making it accessible to more people and by highlighting the tension between lived experience and institutional control.

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