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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Lifestyle
Laura Cumming

Marina Abramović review – the artist is strangely absent

Imponderabilia by Marina Abramović at the Royal Academy.
‘A pair of human gateposts’: a visitor to the Royal Academy walks between two models re-enacting Marina Abramović’s Imponderabilia. Photograph: David Parry/Royal Academy of Arts

Will you make it through the door of the Royal Academy, where two young people currently face each other, naked, like a pair of human gateposts? Not if you are too tactful (or too portly), afraid of grazing their bare bodies with a sharp buckle or zip. But there is a secret bypass into the next gallery that allows you to watch footage of the original and more startling performance of this artwork, in any case, and avoid the keyed-up RA queues.

Marina Abramović and Ulay perform Imponderabilia in 1977.
‘Intense emotional connection’: Imponderabilia, performed by Marina Abramović and Ulay in 1977. Courtesy of the Marina Abramović Archives. © Ulay/ Marina Abramović Photograph: Courtesy of the Marina Abramović Archives. © Ulay / Marina Abramović
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