Lips of Thomas
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Lips of Thomas (also Thomas Lips ) is the name of a performance by the Serbian artist Marina Abramović , which comes from the early days of her work with this stylistic device.
In this performance, as in many of her performances, Abramović pushes herself to her physical limits. The world premiere of this performance was in 1975 at the Krinzinger Gallery in Innsbruck. It was then repeated in 1993 and most recently in 2005 in the Guggenheim Museum in New York for a period of seven hours.
prehistory
The performance is dedicated to the Swiss artist Thomas Lips . Abramović was impressed by his androgyny . She was drawn to him and had a brief affair with him.
After she was invited by Ursula Krinzinger to her Innsbruck gallery, she decided to name her performance after Thomas Lips. The world premiere took place on October 24, 1975.
description
Interested in the physical and psychological limits of the human body, Abramović used her own body for her art actions in order to test these limits, to experience them and to let her audience participate. However, the audience of her Thomas Lips performance would not have always been aware of the symbolism used by Abramović and would only have absorbed the “ritual aura” of the performance.
Abramović entered the stage naked, on which a table with a white tablecloth had been placed. There was a chair in front of it. On the table was a honey jar, a wine bottle, a glass, a spoon and a whip. On the wall was a photograph by the Swiss artist Thomas Lips, to whom this work was dedicated. On the floor there was a cross formed from blocks of ice with a heater hanging over it. Abramović first ate a kilo of honey. Then she drank a liter of wine. She broke the wine glass with her hand, which was starting to bleed. Now she drew a pentagram around the photograph hanging on the wall . She scratched the same motif in her stomach with a razor blade while kneeling in front of the audience. Then she took the whip from the table and whipped herself. Then she lay with her back on the cross made of blocks of ice so that the bleeding pentagram was on her stomach under the radiant heater.
The performance should come to an end after the heater had melted the ice. However, it was canceled about 30 minutes after the artist lay down on the ice blocks in a crucifixion pose due to heckling from concerned onlookers. Abramović was carried away.
When she repeated her performance in New York in 2005, it was not canceled. Abramović had taken precautions to prevent this. Some elements were also changed and a metronome was ticking.
audience
The audience plays a major role in Abramović's performances. She wants to experience the limits of the human body together with the audience and help them to overcome their own fears.
“It was as if an electric current was flowing through my body, as if the audience and I had become one. One organism. The feeling of danger in the room had united the audience and me at that moment: We were here and now and nowhere else. "
intention
Abramovic often approaches or goes beyond her psychological and physical limits in her performances. However, it is not about the pain, but about overcoming it.
“There's no such kind of a logical ending in dealing with pain. I create a structure in which I can go far into the physical limits that a body can take. I don't want to die. That is not the purpose. I want to experience the edge and how much I can take to this edge. "
“There is no logical ending to dealing with pain. I create a structure in which I can go far to the physical limits of the body. I do not wanna die. That is not the intention. I want to experience the limit and how much I can bear up to this limit. "
It offers itself to its audience as a mirror and model to face their own fears.
literature
- Marina Abramović: Walking through walls. Autobiography . Luchterhand, Munich 2016, ISBN 978-3-630-87500-2 (English: Walk through walls. Becoming Marina Abramović . Translated by Charlotte Breuer, Norbert Möllemann).
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Performance: Thomas Lips. Museum of Modern Art Ludwig Foundation , accessed on December 13, 2017 .
- ↑ a b Alana Cappetta: Abramović & Reperformance. Artwrite 54, accessed December 13, 2017 .
- ↑ a b c Marina Abramovic: Walking through walls. Autobiography . Luchterhand, Munich 2016, ISBN 978-3-630-87500-2 .
- ↑ Seven Easy Pieces. Marina Abramović. Exhibition and symposium. In: Documenta. 2006, accessed December 13, 2017 .
- ^ A b Marla Carlson: Marina Abramovic Repeats: Pain, Art, and Theater. HotReview, accessed December 13, 2017 .
- ↑ Thomas Lips, 1975, 1993, 2005. Retrieved December 13, 2017 .