Previously, I have written about performance artist, Marina Abramovic‘s documentary, “The Artist Is Present”. Now the NY-based artist is pledging on Kickstarter for backers to contribute towards her latest, ambitious and ground-breaking project, Marina Abramovic Institute.
The buzz lately has been mostly about the fundraising video featuring Lady Gaga naked practicing the performance artist’s method in nature. This, of course is guaranteed to delight many Gaga fans, but many are also rolling their eyes calling it ‘bizarre’ and ‘pretentious’. Whether the fundraising videos are pretentious or not is beside the point, at least they gained the publicity needed for the project.
MAI aims to foster collaboration between art, science, technology, and spirituality within one space, which will be designed by renowned architects Rem Koolhaas and Shohei Shigematsu of the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA). The visitors/ participants will ‘devote’ six hours of their time ( and possessions) in exchange for an experience that will possibly be sensationally, emotionally and spiritually rewarding. It all sounds very intriguing, and if the project succeeds, potentially it may change the way we interact with art in the future.
There is still one week left to back this project ( click on the kickstarter link above) , and you can watch the video here to judge for yourself: