Unrated; 105 min.
"There are many Marinas," the legendary performance artist at the center of Marina Abramovic: The Artist Is Present says by way of self-introduction, and she is not kidding.
Certainly the extent and nature of Abramovic's output, her use of her body as a canvas on and through which art is created, has caused a series of sensations, from her 1970s work in her native Belgrade through her 2010 career retrospective at New York's Museum of Modern Art. That show is the focus of this film.
Director-cinematographer Matthew Akers, whose background is largely shooting TV documentaries, followed the artist over a 10-month period, shooting hundreds of hours of footage, interviewed key people in her creative life and assembled archival footage of some projects that made her famous.
So we see Abramovic's earlier works, which include slamming herself into a wall, and mutilating and flagellating herself. But the personal Marina you meet on film is someone completely different.
Frank, disarming, playful and unexpectedly funny, this Marina is someone who, as MOMA curator Klaus Biesenbach says, "seduces everyone she meets."
Exclusive: The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth
-- Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
