Belgrade-born / New York-based artist Marina Abramović has just launched a kickstarter campaign to support the creation of MAI, the ”Marina Abramović Institute” – for the preservation of Performance Art by OMA architects, in a former theater in Hudson, New York. Conceptualized as a ”laboratory for new ideas”, the MAI center will fuse innovations in art, spirituality, science and technology as it seeks to develop new kinds of extremely long-form performance experiences. In the kickstarter campaign, Marina Abramović reveals some of her plans for the space. After entering, visitors are expected to lock their belongings into a safebox and don lab coats to leave behind any sense of connection to the outside world. After a ”slow motion walk”, they enter an eyegazing chamber where they will hold eye contact with a stranger for some length of time, recalling Abramović’s own ”The Artist Is Present” performance at MoMA. We all remember what happened when Ulay walked in there and sat in front of her, after many years they hadn’t see each other…
Image courtesy of OMA
Image courtesy of Lauren Wohl
