Through performance, I found the possibility of establishing a dialogue with the audience through an exchange of energy, which tended to transform the energy itself. I could not produce a single work without the presence of the audience, because the audience gave me the energy to be able, through a specific action, to assimilate it and return it, to create a genuine field of energy.
Interpretation
The quote highlights the dynamic relationship between the artist and the audience in the creative process.
Marina Abramovic emphasizes the vital role of the audience in her performances, suggesting that art is not just a solitary act of creation, but rather a collaborative exchange of energy. The presence of the audience provides her with the necessary inspiration and motivation to create, demonstrating how performance art is a shared experience that transforms both the performer and the spectators.
In practice
In a discussion about the role of the audience in performance art during a workshop.
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.
The whole problem can be stated quite simply by asking "Is there a meaning to music?" My answer would be, "Yes", And "Can you state in so many words what the meaning is?" My answer to that would be "No."
That’s my idea of what a portrait ought to be, anonymous and documentary and a straightforward picture of mankind.
If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music.
There are wonderfully talented actresses. It's a really rich field. There isn't as rich a field of material.
I'm doing one of three things: I'm writing. I'm staring out the window. Or I'm writhing on the floor.
Art is the fatal net which catches these strange moments on the wing like mysterious butterflies, fleeing the innocence and distraction of common men.
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