An Art Made of Trust, Vulnerability and Connection | Marina Abramović | TED Talks

Marina Abramović's art pushes the boundary between audience and artist in pursuit of heightened consciousness and personal change. In her groundbreaking 2010 work, "The Artist Is Present," she simply sat in a chair facing her audience, for eight hours a day ... with powerfully moving results. Her boldest work may still be yet to come — it's taking the form of a sprawling art institute devoted to experimentation and simple acts done with mindful attention. "Nothing happens if you always do things the same way," she says. "My method is to do things I'm afraid of, the things I don't know, to go to territory that nobody's ever been."

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[lydiax]

Crazy how people don’t need a reason to hurt someone, just permission

[Souls-at-zer]

the fact that this all happened at a public art show ...imagine if it wasn't, they would have gone so so much farther .

[carinapcoelho]

That experiment just shows how cruel most humans really are when they are in power and allowed to do whatever they really want.

[pedrovaz]

It's funny how some people call her evil, when all she's doing is looking people in the eye and sitting in a chair and letting other people do what they want with her body. Many times she's just standing there. If you think she's evil maybe there's something you're ashamed of, afraid to admit, because you won't allow yourself to be vulnerable. All she does is reflecting the viewer back to itself. And that is some of the best art we've seen so far

[danthompsonm]

They can’t hide any more.
Their spell is broken.
Keep awakening everyone.

[arduousPopsicle]

I am disheartened by the comments here. I don't understand why people think she's awful. She is showing the human experience for who they truly are, and you all call her evil. Proves her point.

[jamesgavern]

Would love to hear the perspective of one of those people who participated in the performance. What was going through their mind. Why they did what they did. I think that would make the performance even better.

[xnrstuw]

As an artist, I can only dream of having this much dedication to my work. I respect her immensely. But at the same time, I know there are many artists who agree that if they didn’t have art they would be willing to die, I think that speaks a lot about the power of art. She showcase it so well.

[tanvikumari]

her eyes are saying more than her words

[yurikar]

Her gaze is so powerful, she is not afraid. She reveals something with her mouth but not words. Is just too much.

[CabanaRen]

Wow people think she’s a devil worshipper?

I’m an art student and I have so much respect for her courage and exploration.
She does so many incredible things and explores subjects that she or others fear, things no normal human would dare to do. That experiment she mentioned in the beginning made me feel sick, but it’s a living testament to how horrible people can be.
She pushes boundaries. I like that.

[barboranalevankova]

She´s the most famous performance artist in the world, highly valuated in fine art. It´s concept art not evil or cult :D :D We even studied her work and performances with Ulay on the fine art university as a part of history of performance. These comments are so narrow-minded.

[LiveAndLetLive]

You know the world is screwed up when this person is on TED.

[ericanorton]

I love seeing how much people are waking up! God bless y’all!

[marzd]

“Music is the highest art of all, because it is the most immaterial” I love you marina

[SamEsss]

I remember when TED came here to Vancouver in 2015 and I desperately wanted to go, but tickets were in the THOUSANDS of dollars. But I didn’t know that Marina was one of the speakers! How did I miss this? Even knowing she was in my city would have moved me.

[krazymindreader]

It was interesting how Marina conquered her fear by making herself VULNERABLE for 6 hours to the public.
BUT I think something else happened, it shows us how predatory human beings can be.

[leowich]

So damn stupid comments so I have to leave some good words about her to restore justice. I just finished reading Marina's autobiography, and I can't stop admire of her braveness, the ability to accept and overcome the pain and the power of her performances at all. This TED could be better, but there is no way to explain all these things in 15 minutes. It could be better to visit her performances or watch some lections. I recommend all of you to read her autobiography for the beginning, to evaluate her heritage and contribution to the history of art.

Thank you, Marina.

[damxn]

Wow … why am I tearing up, even her Ted talk is a performance

[matinmirzaei]

I truly admire this person. I love how mind-blowingly unorthodox her art is. And that's exactly why she is worthy of admiration. She makes such great impact with her performances that one can never forget. Don't care if it's with blood, or just staring into your soul.