Marina Abramović Institute Takeover – Queen Elizabeth Hall

DESCRIPTION

The entire Queen Elizabeth Hall – backstage and all – transforms into the set for enthralling durational performances, curated by conceptual artist Marina Abramović and MAI.

When

4-8 October 2023

Who

Collective Absentia, Carla Adra, Cassils (appearing Wed 4 – Fri 6 Oct only), Paula Garcia, Miles Greenberg, Sandra Johnston, Carlos Martiel, Yiannis Pappas, Paul Setúbal, Aleksandar Timotic and Despina Zacharopoulou.

The entire Queen Elizabeth Hall – backstage and all – transforms into the set for enthralling durational performances, curated by conceptual artist Marina Abramović and MAI.
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The performances use the entirety of the Queen Elizabeth Hall, and is self-led, letting you explore all parts of the building, including the auditorium, Purcell Room, backstage dressing rooms, green rooms, technical spaces and foyer.
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The artists have all been invited to make site-specific, long-durational work. They engage with endurance, presence and participation, creating an infinite possibility of encounters between visitors and artists.
The artists featured are Collective Absentia, Carla Adra, Cassils (appearing Wed 4 – Fri 6 Oct only), Paula Garcia, Miles Greenberg, Sandra Johnston, Carlos Martiel, Yiannis Pappas, Paul Setúbal, Aleksandar Timotic and Despina Zacharopoulou.

Marina Abramović is participating on Wednesday 4 October and Sunday 8 October (session one) and is also present at various other times during the takeover.

A group of people gathers at Queen Elizabeth Hall. They were sitting around a table adorned with an abundance of potatoes. They peel potatoes while the artist Aleksandar Timotic sings, standing on a chair.

Aleksandar Timotic
One of the biggest expressions of love for Balkan people is to ask someone ‘are you hungry?’ This is one of the reasons why our traditional songs carry so much tragedy and are full of tales of self-destructive love.

A group of artists with the same face painting in the shape of a flower are standing in a crowd during one of their durational performances at Queen Elizabeth Hall. In the middle, stands the artist Carla Adra. They are all the same height and wear black hoodies.

Carla Adra
Goodnight Daisies invites viewers into a chorus of shared vulnerability and quiet strength. The Goodnight Daisies become vectors of empathy, sharing stories gathered from 200 strangers. These stories encompass personal struggles, injustices, family tribulations and traumas. The stories were recorded during the performance The Employee of the Office of Tears by Carla Adra during No Intermission.

Carlos Martiel
This work refers to the historical oppression, racism and systemic violence suffered by certain populations of the former British colonies, outside and within the United Kingdom.

Cassils
Tiresias is a durational performance in which Cassils melts a neoclassical Greek male ice sculpture with pure body heat. Cassils recasts the myth of Tiresias as a story of endurance and transformation, performing the resolve required to persist at the point of contact between masculine and feminine.

Collective Absentia
Our Glorious Past Our Glorious Present Our Glorious Future is an ongoing performance by Collective Absentia. Conceived and developed around 2011, the performance mainly involves a series of durational works performed at different sites inside and outside Myanmar. This performance is dedicated to the ungrievable deaths due to the ongoing political violence in Burma/Myanmar since 1948.

Despina Zacharopoulou
The artist invites the audience to enter the performance space one person at a time, after they sign a contract where they declare in advance and in writing how much time they wish to stay inside the performance space. The artist’s main goal is to investigate the conditions within which one can philosophise.

Paul Setúbal
The artist is in a corridor made of white walls, a public access passage that connects visitors to other performances. With his face and body completely covered by black clothing, the artist constantly manipulates a rubber police baton and manoeuvres the object in space.

Paula Garcia
#9 – Noise Body is part of a series of performances in which Paula Garcia covers her body with neodymium magnets, while collaborators cover these magnets with industrial pieces of iron until her body disappears under this rubbish.

Miles Greenberg
Water in a Heatwave is a durational piece for between four and 12 performers. In pairs, the performers clash their bodies into each other atop a series of pedestals, creating numerous tensions within the space.

Sandra Johnston
Shutter unfolds across the five-day duration through a series of related and repeatable actions that gradually unfix and reform into new configurations.

Yiannis Pappas
This work addresses the issue of confinement as a multifaceted challenge encompassing personal, political, economic, and religious conflicts, as well as social exclusion and exploitation. Progressing through a sequence of six ‘cells’, his sole means of escape is a key, which he wields to breach the walls.

Collaborators:
Carla Adra collaborators: Catherine Carter, Sara Checconi S, Cansu Ezgi Ince, Tyler Carney and Cléo Quesne.
Paula Garcia collaborators: Luis Figueiredo de Mesquita, Artem Pylypenko, Vivian Magalhães and Martina O'Shea.
Miles Greenberg collaborators: Ayo (Taboo) Babatope, Sanchez Rhys, Nemar Parchment, Alexander Aplerku, Samuel de Saboia, Cameron James, Dinero Thompson, Jean Paul Paula, James Corbin, James Jordan Johnson, Kieram Corrin Mitchell, Valerie Ebuwa, Madinah Farhannah Thompson, Elisabeth Mulenga and Chloe Finali.

Credits:
Mark Ball / Artistic Director
Aaron Wright / Head of Dance and Performance
Ellie Douglas-Allan / Producer
Paul Russell / Production Manager
Scarlett Brunell / Assistant Producer
Andrea Obinna Pelagatti / Producing Assistant
Alex Solo / Event Manager
Carly Hook / Event Manager
Amelie Carbonnelle / Event Manager
Emma Hayes / Event Manager
Ruth Ripley / Security Event Manager
Lorna Paterson / Senior Visitor Experience Manager
Jenny Byrne / Duty Manager
Luke Jordan / Senior Health and Safety Advisor
Tony Birch / Senior Production Technician
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MAI Curatorial Team: Marina Abramović, Serge Le Borgne, Paula Garcia, Thanos Argyropoulos and Billy Zhao