Seven Easy Pieces by Marina Abramovic

Seven Easy Pieces is a series of Marina Abramovic’s performances that took place in November 9-15, 2005 at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City. Every day for seven hours long, the artist re-enacted an old performance. Five of these were from some of the ancestors of the Body Art – Bruce Nauman, Vito Acconci, Valie Export, Gina Pane, and Joseph Beuys, the other two were her own Lips of Thomas e Entering the Other Side.Babette Mangolte describes this experience focusing on details that outline Abramovic’s fragility, versatility, and endurance. Thanks to its dry and straight style, the movie successfully translates the rigorous discipline, the rudeness, and the strength of Abramovic’s actions. By focusing on every single and painful detail of the pieces, the film systematically explores the performer’s body and increases the awareness of how participatory body art is. The art piece becomes a social act, the role of the public shifts from a passive spectatorship to an active participation.