So this entire exhibit was pretty cool. I tend to just immediately toss out performance art as a bunch of BS; to be honest I have no idea why.
MoMA has a live performance of her current work going on which you can view and interact with here:
http://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2010/marinaabramovic/
(She is challenging anyone from the audience to get up in that chair and sit and stare...yeah ok hmmm)
BUT
It was her previous work that was up on the 6th floor that I found so interesting, and perhaps for (or not) the reasons intended. When you enter the live exhibit it warns the users about nudity and such, in fact this warning is downstairs for all to see. So naturally there are gaggles of adolescent boys running around self-consciously looking at the, attractive, nude women throughout the exhibit. This juxtaposition of boys next to the, umm perhaps, self appointed art aware, creates an overall amusing experience.
In one part of the exhibit you are "forced" to walk between a nude female and male; the idea here is that the space is so small you will, of course, rub against them as you go. As you watch people decide what it is they are going to do: watch, stare, go for it...you can see them trying to gather up their courage; you can't help but just notice how it is really the museum goers on display vs. the actual recreation of the installations.
And in another hilarious moment there is a room with three videos containing nudity on one wall, while there are various pieces of information about past performances in the rest of the room: The center screen shows a voluptuous woman, on video loop, rubbing and bouncing her breasts (the angle of the camera is centered at chest level); this is something out of a Russ Meyer flick. To watch as goers crab about the room with side-long glances up at the center display (with the obvious erotic nature of the film) and trying to read the rest of informational pieces had me dying. Full disclosure: I actually did take the time to just stare at the damn film straight on, get that out of the way and move on.
It is worth going just to watch the people and perhaps take in an installation or two.
http://moma.org/explore/multimedia/videos/96
http://moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/965
