in 2010, marina abramovic embarked on her longest-ever piece of performance art. for 72 days, she sat in front of a small table in a gallery at moma, inviting visitors to sit silently across from her for the duration of their choosing. some stayed for only a minute, others sat quietly for hours, and a portrait was taken of each visitor.
there is something strangely compelling, intimate, and overwhelmingly human about these portraits. some people have tears streaming down their faces, some reappear again and again over days and weeks, and some look only vaguely familiar until you realize you are staring at the face of a famous person (i see you, james franco).
i could literally spend an entire day poring over these photos of strangers. click here to see the entire set on flickr. what do you think? what is it that makes them so enthralling?
4 comments:
wow, that's amazing. i'm not sure how long i would last sitting across from her.
I love when the simplest thing become incredibly powerful. Thanks for sharing this!
xo,
melissa
I cannot sit silently...
I've always loved artist portraits. I find the human face endlessly fascinating. And I don't mean model portraits, (pretty air-brushed cosmetic ads in magazines are the antithesis of what I'm talking about). But I could stare for hours at real people, large scale and up close, like Chuck Close's photographs and prints for example.
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