Performance has to be mainstream art. This is what I'm fighting for.
Interpretation
Marina Abramovic advocates for performance art to be recognized and valued as a significant form of mainstream art.
In this quote, Marina Abramovic expresses her passionate belief that performance art should not be relegated to the margins of the art world but should instead be embraced and celebrated as a legitimate and essential art form. Her fight for this recognition reflects her commitment to challenging traditional notions of art and advocating for the transformative potential of performance in contemporary culture.
In practice
During an art exhibition, I could quote Abramovic to emphasize the significance of performance art.
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.
Some people start with the lyrics first because they know what they want to talk about and they just write a whole bunch of lyrical ideas, but for me the music tells me what to talk about.
I have always avoided photographing in the studio. A woman does not spend her life sitting or standing in front of a seamless white paper background. Although it makes my life more complicated, I prefer to take my camera out into the street... and places that are out of bounds for photographers have always had a special attraction for me.
They've tried to manufacture other Marilyn Monroes and they will undoubtedly keep trying. But it won't work. She was an original.
The man who never in his mind and thoughts travel'd to heaven is no artist.
I photographed the entire thing in color because to photograph it in black and white would be to keep it as a tragedy. Because there is a tragic element to photographing, in this case not war, but the collapse. It was just destruction.
I do the same thing everyday. I go to work and paint. I try to turn out as many pictures as I can.
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