Marina Abramovic & MoMA PS1 Summer School

On Sunday I had the pleasure of attending MoMA PS1's Summer School Open House, where performance artists and their students perform their pieces for the public. The event was from 1-6 and featured three different artists and groups of students, though I only attended to see Marina Abramovic.
The event started with an introduction from Marina and her assistants, who then led the crowd through a series of exercises to attempt to get the public in the correct mental and physical sphere to view the performance pieces. These exercises ranged from breathing and stretching to locking eyes with a stranger  for a solid ten minutes. While uncomfortable, everyone took it very seriously and there was a collective shift after this shared experience.
Myself having mixed feelings about performance art as a medium, I was excited to see such an icon in person. Marina is quite a presence and she commanded the public's attention with every word. There were two separate pieces performed, both using all 12 members of the class, dressed in all black. I felt the performances to be on par with performance art that I have previously seen, which is not great (granted these pieces were put together in less than a week's time).

However, my favorite part came after the performance, when Marina opened up a Q and A for the participants and herself regarding the 'Abramovic Method.' During this session, one of the performers/students explained an installation in the performance room that had previously gone somewhat unnoticed: a row of TVs on the floor, each with video of one of the performers wearing headphones. He explained that Marina had asked them to select a song they hate and a song they love before the first day of their performance class, and upon their arrival she only wanted to hear the song they hated. The performer elaborated on these ideas of facing fears and challenging personal weaknesses, and told the audience that the TVs were showing footage of each participant listening to their selected 'hate songs' and their reactions as the song plays. Viewers are invited to listen to these respective songs through headphones so that they can experience the audio with them. Having just watched their performance pieces that had a lot to do with music, singing, and sound in general, I felt this installation to be a compelling culmination of the ideas expressed in the performances
MoMA PS1
PS1 Summer School