Marina Abramović has today released a never-before-seen introduction into her famous Abramović Method – a practice developed by the legendary performance artist as a continued way of enabling artists to connect with what she’s previously described as “the human now”. In a series of brand new video material, Abramović will herself guide viewers through a series of four fundamental exercises in an immersive online experience. Drinking water, slow-motion walking, counting grains of rice, and mutual-gazing are a few of the essential exercises the artist uses to prepare for her long-durational artworks.
Commissioned by WePresent, WeTransfer’s digital arts platform, the project is intended to initiate visitors into the kind of techniques Abramović uses to sustain herself emotionally and physically through her testing performance artworks. “To be a performance artist, it’s a very difficult task. You need lots of preparation in order to make long durational performance work. So I developed different exercises to help myself generate willpower and concentration, crossing physical and mental limits,” the artist explained in a statement about the project.
This digital manifestation of The Abramović Method is part of the artist’s year-long curatorship of WePresent. Earlier this year, Abramović used the platform to share her endorsements for emerging new artists working with performance. In September, she plans to share her “Time Capsule” – a collection of physically and digital references, ideas, and objects assembled with the aim of creating an inspirational resource for future generations as well as allowing us a privileged “glimpse into her artistic universe”.
Take a look through the gallery above for a look at this latest phase of her collaboration with WeTransfer.
The Abramović Method by Marina Abramović is now live on WeTransfer