Artist Marina Abramović who ‘let people do anything to her’ during her piece ‘Rhythm 0’ has explained why she had nine orgasms in public for another performance.
Marina Abramović is no stranger to pushing the boundaries when it comes to her art. In Naples, 1974, Abramović spent six hours allowing the public to do whatever they wanted to her. This went from one extreme to the other as one person even held a gun to her head.
And putting herself in another vulnerable situation, Serbia’s most celebrated conceptual artist, re-enacted Vito Acconci’s challenging ‘Seedbed’ at New York City’s Guggenheim Museum as part of her Seven Easy Pieces series, and the reason why has been revealed.
In case you’re not up to date on your art knowledge, Acconci’s ‘Seedbed’ is a performance piece from 1972 that sees him masturbating to completion as his fantasies were played out over a speaker at the Big Apple’s Sonnabend Gallery.
It’s now 20 years since Abramović recreated the piece, which featured Abramović masturbating non-stop, while speakers played out her own recorded fantasies.
Maria Abramovic is a Serbian conceptual and performance artist (Dave Benett/Getty Images)
According to NY Arts, recreator Abramović once told the Guggenheim’s curator that the ‘taboo element’ initially ‘intrigued her’ and that drew her to the idea, as well as the ‘sculptural element’ of her artistic Acconci’s performance.
The 78-year-old – who was portrayed by Oscar-winning actress Cate Blanchett in mockumentary show Documentary Now! – previously told Art Monthly that her decision to produce Seven Easy Pieces was based on anger.
“You know in all these years performance was nobody’s territory. But now everybody – I mean everybody – was taking from performance. Even Lady Gaga – you name it – and without really referring to the original material,” she argued.
Abramović wanted to ‘teach a lesson’ and subsequently gained permission and paid foundations in order to re-stage performances.
Discussing Acconci’s ‘Seedbed’ specifically, she conceded a biological issue facing her, sharing: “This one is very complicated because men produce sperm but a woman produces something else.”
Meanwhile, the star went on to inform New York Magazine that she had nine orgasms in total during her ‘Seedbed’ reconstruction, and that she’d ‘never concentrated so hard’ in her life prior to it.
Her ‘Seedbed’ re-enactment ended with nine orgasms in total (YouTube screenshot)
“Having orgasms publicly, being excited by the visitors steps above me – it’s really not easy, I tell you!” she said.
“I’ve never concentrated so hard in my life. The problem for me, with this piece, was the absence of public gaze: only the sound. But I heard that people had a great time; it was like a big party up there! I ended with nine orgasms. It was terrible for the next piece – I was so exhausted!”
She later described having an orgasm as ‘such an important moment’, which can make you ‘feel life, connected to nature, birds, the rocks, the trees; everything becomes luminous and beautiful.’