Marina Abramović at Art Basel Hong Kong
As PORTER celebrates Incredible Women at Art Basel Hong Kong with Estée Lauder, SARAH BAILEY meets the phenomenon that is MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ to discuss virtual reality, saving the oceans and love
Marina Abramović, the world’s greatest living performance artist, will not be present in person to unveil her virtual-reality artwork, Rising – about the urgent threat of climate change and rising sea levels – when it premieres at Art Basel Hong Kong this week. Instead, the ‘players’ who experience the immersive piece will encounter Abramović’s avatar in a tank fast filling with water – only by pledging to help the oceans can they save her from drowning. The Serbian artist’s avatar is impressively elegant and commanding, but nowhere near as subversive, kick-ass and surprising as the woman herself. Here, she shares her thoughts on environmental catastrophe, love and life – and they are as serious and playful as she is.
On why her latest work, Rising, is a video game: “I was thinking, how can I get to the hearts of kids using their own tools… I don’t really know anything about video games, but a long time ago – maybe 20 years – I was in Japan and there was a game that was incredibly revolutionary for me. I was a firefighter and I was in front of an orphanage that was on fire and you had to go inside to save the babies. I remember playing this game fanatically and having 25 babies in my hands and feeling this unbelievable satisfaction.”
On the urgency of climate change: “Artists have intuition – I think every artist actually deep down knows when they are going to die. Our planet is 70% water and 30% land. Everyone is pretending that everything is okay, but nothing is okay. I believe the world will die in the next 100 years if we don’t change the way we live.”
“The brain and climate change are very connected because once we really take the facts as they are, we will not just sit around and think we are here forever… ‘Rising’ has two meanings: the rising of the water, but also the rising of consciousness
”Marina Abramović
On the one change to our environmental behavior that we should all make: “To get out of the comfort zone, to take a risk. I think the brain and climate change are very connected because once we really take the facts as they are, we will not just sit around and think we are here forever. The piece is called Rising, but ‘Rising’ has two meanings: the rising of the water, but also the rising of consciousness.”
On how best to nurture love: “This is from singer-songwriter Lou Reed and artist Laurie Anderson: Number one: You’ve got to have a good bulls detector, to really understand the bulls that people are putting on you. Number two: Not to be afraid of anybody and anything. And number three: To be tender. I think this is the best advice that I have ever heard.”
Watch now as Marina Abramović and Acute Art’s Dado Valentic discuss the making of Rising, the artist’s incredible new VR artwork
HTC VIVE will present Rising by Marina Abramović at Art Basel Hong Kong from March 29–31