Marina Abramovic and Ulay started an intense love story in the 70s, performing art out of the van they lived in. When they felt the relationship had run its course, they decided to walk the Great Wall of China, each from one end, meeting for one last big hug in the middle and never seeing each other again. At her 2010 MoMa retrospective Marina performed ‘The Artist Is Present’ as part of the show, a minute of silence with each stranger who sat in front of her. Ulay arrived without her knowing it and this is what happened.
To create this Death self, the two performers devised a piece in which they connected their mouths and took in each other’s exhaled breaths until they had used up all of the available oxygen. Seventeen minutes after the beginning of the performance they both fell to the floor unconscious, their lungs having filled with carbon dioxide. This personal piece explored the idea of an individual’s ability to absorb the life of another person, exchanging and destroying it.
Ulay and Abramović collaborated together for over a decade, upholding an intense and intimate relationship. In 1988, the two began a spiritual journey to end their relationship; each started at opposite ends of the Great Wall of China, walked 2500 km over a span of 90 days, met in the center, and said good-bye.
Maybe I’m deluded here, looking for “authenticity” in a place where it doesn’t exist anymore, saying something that many of you have been complaining about for years, but every time an artist the size of Timberlake or Green Day performs at SXSW they are literally stealing attention, and money, and fans, out of the hands of the 1,500 or so bands who shlepped all the way down there to ply their wares in front of the industry’s taste-makers. SXSW is a zero-sum game — there are a finite number of chips on the table, and there are winners and losers. Timberlake doesn’t need the fans, he doesn’t need the buzz, and he doesn’t need the torrent of “festival highlight recaps!” that will be written about his performance. Every blog post and magazine article written about Timberlake and Green Day is one that will not be written about an unknown band, because assholes like me will go out of our way to get into the show just so we can let assholes like you know we got into the show.
Luke O’Neil FTW(again) on one of the many reasons why I’m not in the least bit sad about bailing on SXSW this year. (via hilaryhughes)
Jean Harlow on the set of “Dinner At Eight” (1933). Her white satin gown by Adrian was cut on the bias and so form fittting she could not sit down in it, so MGM constructed this “reclining board” so she could rest between takes.
