Addictive Exhibition

For 700 hours she sat, staring into the faces of those willing to make that walk from the edge of the paintedoff square at the edges of MoMA’s atrium to the chair across from her.

The rules of Marina Abramovic’s [“The Artist Is Present”] were very loose, stipulating that any participant may sit for any amount of time. Some took that more liberally than others. One woman took the seat 29 times (her name is Ananda, and she always wore the same yellow tunic).

But of all the Abramovic regulars New York Press talked to, they concurred on two things: First, that a sense of community developed around the exhibition. People came and went, but the interactions surrounding the two central figures in the room (Abramovic and her foil of the moment) were just as important as those outside the square. For every contact we made, we were given two more—all of whom met in MoMA’s atrium.

The second point of agreement: Abramovic’s performance was a gift.

“She has a magnetic energy. It attracts the individual to sit with her. And that’s what made me go back again and again. She was very generous,” said Paco Blanacs, a 48-year-old makeup artist. He sat with Abramovic 21 times—often crying while doing so—and went to the museum more than 50 just to observe.

“She’s in an unconditional space. I felt faith there. I could trust that place. So I would allow myself to express whatever it was I was feeling and letting go of whatever I was processing inside,” he said.

According to Balanacs, over the length of the performance, he saw a change in himself: “They were not necessarily tears of sorrow or grief, but towards the end, it became very light and more neutral. It was more like letting go of the psychological part of the experience and it became more spiritual.”

He wasn’t the only one who saw “The Artist is Present” existing over its duration rather than in the fragments of its sitters. Nina Meledandri, a 53-year-old artist from Brooklyn sat 12 times, but also visited 38 just to view.

“Any piece that takes place over three months is going to evolve. I think it was a very generous piece in that way, that Marina’s intent of sitting in New York without some sort of communication in this loud, busy city and expanding one’s consciousness instead of using the things we usually do to communicate was very generous.”

That durational commitment wasn’t specific to older artists.

“I went every day since April 4—almost 60 different times,” Dana Ljubicic, a 15-year-old painter says. “Once I was there, I fell in love with the performance. I really wanted to dedicate myself to it. If one day I didn’t want to go, I wouldn’t go. But I wanted to go every day.”

Ljubicic, who attends NYCiSchool, would trek to the museum every day after class just to observe. She sat seven times, all on weekends, when she would wait on line at the opening of the museum and rush up the stairs to ensure her place across from Abramovic.

“The first time I know I was really emotional and it was really intense. After a couple sittings, it became more timeless. I felt like we weren’t in a human state but we were connecting in an indescribable way,” she said.

But now the exhibit is over, she’s left with only her takeaway.

“I almost mourn the exhibit in a way. I met so many people, I learned so much. Before going there I was questioning my art and what I was doing and it wasn’t as good as it used to be. After coming there, I knew art was what I wanted to do. I had this new feeling that everything was going to be OK in my life,” she said.