This year was an upset to the art world as the Academy Awards didn’t nominate Ai Weiwei or Marina Abramović’s “The Artist is Present”.
Marina Abramović is an internationally recognized performance artist who released a documentary this last year. Her film “The Artist Is Present” was not nominated for the 85th annual Academy Awards. This movie archived her retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in 2010. This film gave non-art-goers a glimpse into the art world and to have them understand what performance art actually is-besides Lady Gaga who has claimed herself as a performance artist.
Marina Abramović is considered on of the pioneers of performance art originating out of ground breaking durational pieces like Rhythm Zero where she allowed visitors to do extreme acts upon her. For example, they cut her, dressed her as a whore, and even put a loaded gun to her head.
The Artist is Present is retrospective that included other performers redoing her well known pieces and the artist herself, sitting for the duration of the museum hours staring face to face with the public. This event has become of the most historical exhibitions to date and the performance will be remembered for generations to come. It touched the hearts of many-even making some cry and created record breaking lines of people waiting to have their personal experience with the artist.
The Oscars are a completely different animal for Abramovic. We all remember the upset with known street artist, Banksy in the documentary, “Exit Through the Gift Shop” which was nominated for the 2011 Academy Awards. This year we have already noticed that the Academy does not understand the importance of art history. Will the art world ever catch the eye of the commercial film world? Obviously not this year.
For more information on MOMA’s exhibition visit their website: http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/965