It is a summer less harsh so far in Delhi this year with clouds or light showers every time the mercury rises. The Gods have resolved to show some mercy… This issue we draw inspiration from Marina Abramović “The Grandmother of Performance Art” and set out to explore this less common genre of art. Abramović, will open an exhibition called 512 Hours at the Serpentine Gallery in London, her first original performative show in the UK, in her previous performance “The Artist is Present,” a 736 hours and 30 minutes silent piece at Moma in New York (for eight hours a day, every-day) in which she sat still in the museum’s hall while viewers were invited to take turns sitting opposite her, she sat in a chair sitting at one side of a table in silence while visitors came and occupied the chair opposite her and stared into her eyes, some laughed most wept… A support group for the “sitters”, “Sitting with Marina”, was created on Facebook, The Italian photographer Marco Anelli took pictures of every person who sat opposite Abromović, which were published on Flickr, compiled in a book and also featured in an exhibition at the Danziger Gallery,New York. A video game version of Abramović’s erformance was also released. In 1974, in her native Belgrade, Serbia she had set 72 items on a trestle table and invited the visitors to use them on her in any way they saw fit. Some of the items were harmless like a feather boa, some olive oil and roses but not all, “I had a pistol with bullets in it, my dear. I was ready to die”, she had said. At the end of the six hour performance, she had walked off dripping with blood and tears. No chair no table this time. Abramović will wander around the gallery doing “Nothing” the audience shall be required to leave out their coats, watches and all their devices “It’s the public and me and nothing else. I took the objects away. But the encounter,” She says, “I’ve never done anything as radical as this. This is as immaterial as you can go.” Inder Salim the noted performance artist questions the relevance of the politics of the body and the mind to any act thus performed. Lina Vincent Sunish & H.A Anil Kumar write about Performance Art Practice in angalore.Stuti narrates the tales of the Patuas, the oldest of performers in the land. Santanu Ganguly takes us on a tour of ChinaArteBrazil , curated by art historians Ma Lin and Tereza de Arruda in Brazil a exclusive view of Chinese contemporary art proposing to enhance the cultural dialogue between Brazil and China. He also interviews photographer Nemai Ghosh who has been the archetypal Satyajit Ray biographer through his decades-long close association with the brilliant filmmaker. Lina Vincent Sunish reports from the one day art camp by the K.K. Hebbar Art Foundation that was held around a pool side garden in a Bangalore suburb. Saba Hasan talks about her radical art practise and what drives the artist in her in Matters of heArt with Paramjot Walia. Hope you enjoy this summer issue as a new day and age beckons, we hope unitedly it’s a good one! Happy Reading!
Siddhartha Tagore
