The Artist is Present — Marina Abramović

Being present. Sitting still. These can be acts of revolution, given the times of urgency and action we live in. And yet, much of success can depend on taking the time to pause, though difficult it may be.

When I think of the power of sitting still and being present, I think of an extreme example of Marina Abramovic’s The Artist is Present. Marina Abramovic is a Serbian conceptual and performance artist whose work spans body art, endurance art, feminist art, the relationship between the performer and audience, the limits of the body, and the possibilities of the mind.

One of her famous work is The Artist is Present, which she performed in 2010 at The Museum of Modern Art. The inspiration behind this art was the belief that stretching the length of a performance beyond expectations serves to alter our perception of time and foster a deeper engagement in the experience.

During this art performance, she was to sit more or less motionless and be present while various people come and look her in the eyes for however long they wanted. The instructions were simple: “Sit silently with the artist for a duration of your choosing”. She did this performance 6-8 hours a day for 3 months (around 700 hours), during which time around 1,000 people sat across from her chair. During the whole time, she remained mostly motionless and concentrated on looking at the person sitting across the table. Probably one of the instances she moved was when she stretched her arms to greet a surprise participant (an ex-partner and lover) in an emotional encounter.

Some sources say that in preparation to this performance, she trained with Tibetan Buddhists and that she was able to transcend the limits of her own body and mind through meditation. Everybody was in awe of her performance. Some of the participants said that this was a transformative experience, with the main message being clear: being present, breathing, maintaining eye contact. A documentary has been made to tell this extraordinary feat of patience.

While it may seem as an easy task to sit still and be present, Marina Abramovic reminds us that the hardest thing is to do something which is close to nothing.

Complement this with the book Stillness is the Key by Ryan Holiday, which espouses the idea of stillness (the book from which I first learned of Marina Abramovic's story).