UNA MOSTRA
MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ
The Abramović Method
Curated by Diego Sileo and Eugenio Viola
21 march - 10 june 2012
PAC Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea
Marina Abramović returns to Milan with a new work conceived for the
PAC Contemporary Art Pavilion
The PAC in Milan is the venue chosen by Marina Abramović to host her eagerly
awaited new work – the first after the major retrospective of 2010 at the MoMA, New
York – from 21 March to 10 June 2012.
Promoted by the Milan Department of Culture, Fashion and Design and jointly
produced by the PAC Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea and 24 ORE Cultura–Gruppo
24 ORE, the event is curated by Diego Sileo and Eugenio Viola.
An icon of every form of expression connected with the body, Marina Abramović is one
of the most fascinating and magnetic figures of our time and one whose artisticexistential trajectory is indivisibly linked to the very history of performance. A pioneer
of this art back in the 1970s and winner of the Golden Lion at the 1997 Venice
Biennial, she has often gone beyond her physical and psychological limits, endangered
her personal safety, shattered frameworks and conventions, and probed deeply into
her own fears and those of her spectators, bringing art into contact with physical and
emotional experience, and connecting it with life itself.
The Abramović Method is born out of reflections developed by Marina Abramović on
the basis of her last three performances, The House With the Ocean View (2002),
Seven Easy Pieces (2005) and The Artist is Present (2010), experiences that have left
a deep imprint on her perception of her work in relation to the public.
“In my experience, as developed in a career of over 40 years, I have arrived at the
conclusion that the public plays a very important and indeed crucial role in
performance,” she explains. “The performance has no meaning without the public
because, as Duchamp said, it is the public that completes the work of art. In the case
of performance, I would say that public and performer are not only complementary
but almost inseparable.”
It will thus be the public, guided and prompted by the artist, that experiences her
“interactive installations” in The Abramović Method with the support of
Rottapharm|Madaus. These works cast different mineral embedded – quartz,
amethyst turmaline – with which the public will have the opportunity to interact,
standing, sitting or lying down. A physical and mental pathway that transforms the
spaces of the PAC into an experience made up of darkness and light, absence and
presence, and altered perceptions of space and time. A pathway offering people the
chance to expand their senses, to observe, and to learn to listen, both to others and
to themselves.
In order to emphasize the ambivalent role of observer and observed, actor and
spectator, Marina Abramović has chosen to put the public to the test also in the
apparently simple action of observation at a distance, providing a series of telescopes,
by AURIGA, for visitors to look at the macro and micro point of views those who
decide to tackle the interactive installations.
This is the “Abramović Method” with which the artist has experimented on herself in
years of iron self-control and dedication, a process that reached its peak in the
exhausting performance The Artist is Present at the MoMA (2010), in which she
performed daily during public hours. For this longest solo piece to date, she was sitted
in silence at a table, inviting visitors to take the seat across from her for as long as
they choose within the timeframe of the museum's hours of operation. She did not
respond to the participants,but their involvement completed the work, allowing them
to have a personal experience with the artist and the performance piece itself.
A monumental installation, proposed for the first time in Italy, will rebuild this
memorable action , welcoming the visitors and in the mean time, introducing the
scenario of the Abramović Method.
This method is born out of awareness that the act of performance is capable of
bringing about a radical transformation both in the performer and in the public. In an
age when time is truly precious but also truly rare, Marina Abramović calls upon the
actor and spectators to stop and experience the “here and now” of what regards them
first and foremost: themselves and their way of relating to their surrounding world.
Visitors will be helped to attain a deeper understanding of the Abramović method by a
selection of previous works. From Dozing Consciousness (1997) to Homage to Saint
Therese (2009), her wors are based on the same principles and the same untiring
pursuit of an “energetic” expansion of perception capable of combining age-old
wisdom and traditions with contemporary reality.
In the exhibition will be projected an estract of “MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ - THE ARTIST IS
PRESENT” directed by Matthew Akers, produced by Show of Force for HBO in coproduction with AVRO Television and in collaboration with GA&A Productions and in
Italy distributed by GA&A Productions and Feltrinelli Real Cinema, that have permitted
the Italian preview in Milan on 22 of march, concurrent with the opening of the
exhibition in PAC. In february, the film won The Public Award in Berlin Festival 2012.
Also “The Abramović Method” will be the object of a film-documentary directed by
Giada Colagrande with the support of Fondazione Furla. «We’re happy to contribute to
the achievement this project» says Giovanna Furlanetto, the foundation president
«because we’re very bound with Marina, an exstraordinary artist that was patroness
of the 7th edition of the Furla Awards, and we really appreciate Giada Colagrande’s
sensibility.
The catalogue, edited by Diego Sileo and Eugenio Viola, will be published by 24 ORE
Cultura–Gruppo 24 ORE with texts of the two curators, Renato Barilli, Achille Bonito
Oliva, Germano Celant, Gillo Dorfles, Antonello Tolve, Angela Vettese and Neville
Wakefield.
The book will be publishes in two volumes. The first, Italian Works, will feature all the
performances staged in Italy by Marina Abramović. Created at different stages in her
40-year career, these works bear witness to her special relationship with Italy, which
has hosted some of her most famous, courageous, innovative and celebrated
performances. From the debut in Rome with Rhythm 10 (1973) to Rhythm 4 (1974),
the only performance in Milan, from the dangerous Rhythm 0 (Naples 1974) to the
challenging Imponderabilia (Bologna, 1977), from Balkan Baroque (1997), winner of
the Venice Biennial Golden Lion, to the agonizing Mambo a Marienbad (Volterra, 2001)
and so many others. The second will instead focus exclusively on the entire process
leading up to the forging of the “Abramović Method” and include all the salient phases,
from the staging of the event to the direct experience of those privileged to enjoy this
overview of the unique method of creating performance art that has made Marina
Abramović one of the most important artists of our time.
The exhibitions of the PAC are held on an annual basis with support from TOD’S.
As Antonio Scuderi, managing director of 24 ORE Cultura, explains, “After the great
success of the exhibition ‘Artemisia Gentileschi. The History of a Passion’ at the
Palazzo Reale, Milan, it was with huge enthusiasm that our organization took up this
new challenge of co-producing another unique event, this time featuring a major
figure in contemporary art.”
Accademia di Brera, the official university of the exhibition, have selected a group of
students that will be educated by Marina and will guided the public from 26th march as
keepers of the Abramović Method.
Teaching activities, planned and organized by MARTE, are made thanks to the
contribution of Gruppo COOP Lombardia.
In Milan, it will be possible to live “The Abramović Method” with other special events:
- Tuesday 20 march, in Galleria Lia Rumma, Marina Abramović opens a second
exhibition “With Eyes Closed I See Happiness” where it will be possible a key to
the reading of the “Method”
- Thursday 21 march, at the Apollo spazioCinema in Milan – at 8.00 p.m. and
10.15 p.m. – the film “Marina Abramović. The artist is present”, directed by
Matthew Akers, produced by Show of Force for HBO in coproduction with AVRO
Television and in collaboration with GA&A Productions, in Italy distributed by
GA&A Productions and Feltrinelli Real Cinema, will be presented in national
preview. Advance sale of the tickets on www.spaziocinema.info
Follow The Abramovic Method:
Twitter @AbramovicMethod #abramovicmethod
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pacmilano
Vimeo http://vimeo.com/abramovicmethod
Info: www.theabramovicmethod.it
www.ticketit.it – Tel. 02 54915
Ufficio Stampa 24 ORE Cultura
Giulia Zanichelli | T +39 02 3022 3739 | C +39 335 1852009 giulia.zanichelli@24orecultura.com
Elisa Lissoni | T +39 02 3022 3643 | ext.elisa.lissoni@24orecultura.com
Barbara Notaro Dietrich | C +39 348 7946584 | b.notarodietrich@gmail.com
Ufficio stampa Comune di Milano
Elena Conenna | T 02 884 53314 | elenamaria.conenna@comune.milano.it
Press note, March 19, 2012
Rottapharm|Madaus Sponsor of The Abramović Method Exhibition
Marina Abramović - born in 1946, an artist who in her forty-year long career has revolutionised the
traditional conventions of the visual arts - is the protagonist of The Abramović Method, an event promoted
by the Milan Department of Culture, Fashion and Design and produced by the PAC Padiglione d’Arte
Contemporanea and 24 ORE Cultura - Gruppo 24 ORE in partnership with Rottapharm|Madaus.
Rottapharm|Madaus has always dedicated particular attention to the art, a discipline in which innovation is
also a primary, indispensable driver of growth”- explains Giovanna Forlanelli, Head of Communication of
the Pharmaceutical Group. “Art, similarly to medical research, is always inspired by an intuition, an idea
that is then developed through technique, study and talent: a search for innovation, the courage to
experiment, and the will to explore ever new roads are values common to both artistic and scientific
research”.
Rottapharm|Madaus adopts a targeted strategy of local and national promotion and support of artistic
assets with the aim of highlighting and valorising the deeply-rooted common values that bring
pharmaceutical research closer to the apparently distant world of art.
1. Babygella – Discovering Art Together: a project of national scope involving leading museums (National
Archaeological Museum of Naples, the Poldi Pezzoli Museum of Milan, the Triennale of Milan) and
promoted by the Babygella brand – the Rottapharm|Madaus line of baby hygiene and care products – and
intended to forge closer links between young children and their families and the world of art and culture.
2. Rottapharm Special Award - Biennale Giovani (Young People’s Biennial), Monza: the Group has steered
its attention in particular to young talents able - through their works – to propose always different
perspectives and open new viewpoints on the world. In addition to the Rottapharm special award which
made its debut at the 2007 edition of the Biennale Giovani (Young People’s Biennial) at the Serrone of the
Villa Reale of Monza, the company is actively engaged in a suite of major initiatives.
3. Petala Aurea - To celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the Group in December 2010, Rottapharm
promoted and financed the unique Petala Aurea - Byzantine and Longobard Laminae Exhibition that made
it possible for the first time to admire the collection of findings of high historic value forming part of the
private collection of Professor Rovati, its President and Founder.
Rottapharm|Madaus also participated in the HBEDU (Education through Art) project promoted by the
Hangar Bicocca Foundation and focused on the training of young resources and also promoted, together
with the Triennale in Milan, the Pier Paolo Pasolini photographic exhibition. Photographs by Dino Pedriali
that retraces the last two weeks of the life of the great intellectual.
To discover more about artistic and cultural initiatives: www.rottapharm.com
THE GROUP AT A GLANCE:
Research, innovation and technology have always represented the underpinnings of the business of
Rottapharm|Madaus, a multinational pharmaceutical group based in Monza that operates in more than 85
countries worldwide. For more than 50 years, the Group has been engaged in the development, production
and sale of original and innovative products for the treatment of major disorders, an ambitious goal
pursued by the Group in a responsible, ethical manner both in its clinical research activities and at
pharmacovigilance level.
Rottapharm|Madaus Cultural Initiatives Press Office:
CLARART
Tel. +39 039 2721 502
press@clarart.com
www.clarart.com
Rottapharm|Madaus Corporate Press Office
ECHO Comunicazione d’Impresa
Claudio Rossetti – Mariana Cerina
mcerina@echocom.it
Tel. +39 02 62694736