For me, performance is a holy ground. When I perform, I really step into a different state of consciousness.
Interpretation
The quote expresses the profound nature of performance as a transformative experience that transcends ordinary awareness.
Marina Abramovic underscores the significance of performance as a deeply sacred and transformative act. For her, stepping into this realm elevates her consciousness, suggesting that the act of performing enables one to access a higher state of awareness, connection, and creativity beyond the mundane aspects of daily life.
In practice
A director could use this quote during a workshop to inspire actors to connect deeply with their roles.
All the aggressive actions I do to myself I would never dream of doing in my own life - I am not this kind of person. I cry if I cut myself peeling potatoes. I am taking the plane, there is turbulence, I am shaking. In performance, I become, somehow, like not a mortal.
I hate studio. For me, studio is a trap to overproduce and repeat yourself. It is a habit that leads to art pollution.
The function of the artist in a disturbed society is to give awareness of the universe, to ask the right questions, and to elevate the mind.
First of all, to do performance art, you really have to give 100 percent. I only know that I have to give 100 percent and then what happens, happens.
Theatre is fake... The knife is not real, the blood is not real, and the emotions are not real. Performance is just the opposite: the knife is real, the blood is real, and the emotions are real.
I want people to come to me open and vulnerable. When they come to the gallery, they have to leave their watches, their computers, their Blackberrys, iPads, iPhones, because we are so incredibly used to technology, and I wanted to remove that.
I'll be writing songs till I die. There's just no question.
One of the things that separates a good genre movie from a bad genre movie, I always think, ironically, is when you care about the people. The dime a dozen ones are where you don't have any awareness of the character.
I want a storm to come and flood us into a song that no one wrote.
Great art is clear thinking about mixed feelings.
Hollywood is a place where they'll pay you a thousand dollars for a kiss and fifty cents for your soul.
That's what's nice about directing a film and having it done: There's nothing more I can do about it. It's done. That's it. All I can do is let it go and hope that people are kind to it.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.