Marina Abramović’s 2010 New York show The Artist Is Present made her a global icon, but she is not personally present in the mystical extravaganza of her new show Gates and Portals. She did turn up at the press launch, however, to explain that since becoming a celebrity she wants to remove herself from her work, to allow it to speak for itself. This is a tall order. As I found at that event, she’s an extraordinary presence. She composes herself with magnetic stillness, and when she speaks she seems to time her words to some underlying rhythm of breath and heartbeat. Her charisma and uncanny agelessness hold you hypnotised.
Facilitators trained in what she calls the Abramović Method sadly can’t reproduce those unearthly qualities. It’s as if Judi Dench were to train a bunch of people in the Dench Method and get them to perform her famous roles: just not the same. Worse, it focuses your mind on the ideas behind the art – and they are wafer-thin.
