Transforming Energy (from a-n)

 

I went to see Marina Abramović’s exhibition, Transforming Energy at the Gallerie dell’Accademia when I was in Venice a week ago. It was interesting to see the juxtaposition of contemporary performance art in a gallery for pre-19th century Venetian artworks.

I saw this exhibition as a dialogue between the accessories of performances and the viewer as performer. I write this because the works in the show had instructions for the viewer, which gave guidance to how the viewer interacts with the works and to ‘submit to the experience’.

Similar to queuing to see the Austria Pavilion at the Biennale, it requires reflection and is an inward experience felt by the viewer rather than as a scopophilic spectator.

I have guitar lessons, and my guitar teacher said that I only get out what I put into learning a musical instrument. I think this statement applies to the Transforming Energy exhibition. It’s easy to dismiss it if the objective was to view it as visual arts. I think I would have dismissed it if I hadn’t been to art school (which does raises the insight that I might be too cynical at art schools at the moment and I ought to cut it some slack).

I saw the show as a lesson that Abramović was teaching me in surrendering myself to experiencing how I felt standing around the crystals, and how my body felt to be leaning on the crystals on the wall, knowing that all the other viewers were in the same room. And how I felt to be doing this in a prestigious institution. The show continued even after I left. When I went to a restaurant looking outwards to the ocean, I decided to be mindful with the meal, the aperol spritz, and surrender to the moment of being in a beautiful city on my own, because I’m not sure if I’m lucky enough to get to have this moment again.