- Venue
- Serpentine Gallery
- Location
- London
I so admire the work of Marina Abramović and had done my best to avoid reading about her endurance piece over 64 days at the Serpentine before I went so that I could experience it with fresh eyes. I was hoping and expecting to love it. Besides, it’s a thrill to be in the same room as someone whose work you have thought about for years.
I was very, very disappointed. I don’t know what I expected this happening to be, but certainly not this not-happening. It’s not her, it’s me. It’s not everyone else in the room, it’s me. Perhaps. Some people were clearly in a sort of bliss to be slowed down, made to stand and think, walk slowly, even be put to bed for a little nap. I think I had enough enforced sitting in silence as a child in Church, and I admit I felt equally bored and fidgety. Situations like that make me want to be naughty and subversive, and I spent much of my time there considering if it would be worth my while doing something in order to be asked to leave. At least it would be something. I admit I succumbed to the general torpor of the hot day and just left. Perhaps I came in a lull. I believe the set up changes over time. Mindfulness, does it have to be notmindfulness?
I did not like the unquestioning compliance we all seem to fall into, like a sort of hushed church atmosphere. And there is Marina. Brilliant. What will happen now. She indicated to some people that they should close their eyes. She takes someone’s hand and instructs them how to walk slowly up and down a room. She sits down. Marina’s helpers also lead and control the audience, sometimes laying hands on a person like patronising spiritual healing. How I did not like that. There is something cultish and quasi-religious about the atmosphere, and utter, utter control.
Before this piece started, I had read what Abramović had to say, that the work was about responding to what happens in the gallery, and that she did not know what would happen. She has made a career of endurance, creating situations and feats of mindfulness, and yet what is happening at the Serpentine is not response but a benign dictatorship.
