The best documentary films unfold like the best dramatic films: we follow a protagonist and their story, we see their struggle, their fall, their eventual triumph. Along the way we are offered insights into the human situation; the particular story we are watching echoes the universal and – in the best such films – we come away from the experience with a greater understanding not only of our own life, but of all lives. We have, in effect, become a little more human.
Marina Abramović: The Artist is Present, directed by Matthew Akers and Jeff Dupre for the HBO Network, is one such film. From the very beginning it plays like a skillfully wrought drama. We are introduced to the artist Abramović as she prepares for perhaps the most important event in her career: a major retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Born in Belgrade, Abramović moved to Amsterdam in the early 1970s to pursue her art, an extreme form of performance in which her own body became the principle vehicle of expression. Many of Abramović’s early works are represented in this film.
While in Amsterdam she met the West German artist Uwe Laysiepen, known as Ulay. They became collaborators and lovers, producing some very physical, confronting performance pieces over an artistic trajectory that ended in the late 1980s with a piece that celebrated the end of their relationship: they walked from opposite ends of the Great Wall of China, meeting in the middle for the last time, embracing and then going their separate ways.
Throughout the film we are treated to the usual talking heads: her manager, the curator of MoMA, her friends, Ulay and Abramović herself. Abramović is a particularly beguiling presence; it is easy to see why the curator of her retrospective says at one point that he thought that Abramović was in love with him. She seems to have that effect on most people she meets in the film: a kind of erotic wonder briefly lights their faces, and then they get on with the business of doing whatever it is that Abramović wants them to do.
Which is quite a lot, really. As part of her retrospective Abramović collects together a group of young New York artists whose job it is to recreate and reenact some of her more famous and iconic works. To do this she takes them away on a retreat for several weeks, and then proceeds to teach them the physical skills that are necessary to survive the arduous and often extremely physically demanding performances. No one seems to object, and seeing her interact with the young artists, we can see that they are willingly seduced by Abramović’s quite palpable personal magnetism. As this film makes abundantly clear, Abramović is obviously the ‘It Girl’ of the gallery scene.
The Artist is Present was the name of her retrospective (held in 2010), and it is also the name of a particular piece in the exhibition. It is perhaps now her most famous piece, and, if this film is any indicator, justifiably so.
For days on end, and for the entirety of the retrospective, Abramović sat in a simple chair in the centre of one of the MoMA galleries. In front of her was a small table, and just beyond it another simple chair. Gallery attendees were encouraged to sit in the chair opposite Abramović to, well, experience her presence. Not that anyone needed any encouragement. People lined up for hours, some even slept outside the gallery overnight to get the opportunity to just sit in front of her for a few minutes. As this film documents, the encounter was often emotionally overwhelming, and in some cases, catalytic.
Perhaps the most moving moment in the film is when her former partner Ulay unexpectedly joins the crowd, and then sits in the chair opposite Abramović. She opens her eyes – and there he is. She seems overcome with emotion for several seconds, then slowly reaches her hands across the table to gently grasp his hands in hers. It is a beautiful scene that no screenwriter, no matter how skillful, could have written.
So there you have it: Marina Abramović: The Artist is Present is a love story, plain and simple. It is a love story about a remarkable artist who seems to have an inexhaustible capacity to evoke strong emotions from her public, who seems to fascinate (in the ancient sense of bewitch) everybody who encounters her, whether inside the gallery context or without. As this film makes clear, she radiates profound love for everyone, and for life itself.
If only someone could bottle that.
With a strong underlying dramatic structure, Marina Abramović: The Artist is Present is a brilliantly realised portrait of a unique artist and a unique personality. Few artistic documentaries do justice to both the artist and their work—this one does so with effortless grace and heart.
The DVD has no special features besides a trailer. But then, anything else would have been superfluous.
Rating: 5 stars out of 5
Marina Abramović: The Artist is Present
Directed by Matthew Akers and Jeff Dupre
USA, 2012, 104 mins
Available to buy or rent from Madman Entertainment
Rated MA
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