It seems some Hongkongers are big fans of performance art and the response to a show last Friday at the Academy for Performing Arts theatre stunned even the artist, Marina Abramovic. More than 400 people packed the venue and some theatre-goers were even willing to wait for standby tickets to see Abramovic, who was one of the first to use the body as a tool for making statements in the 1970s. The Yugoslavian, known as the grandmother of performance art, was shocked at the response to her show: 'Who knows my art here?'
Expressing her surprise at the many changes in the city since her first visit in 1989, the 59-year-old said: 'There was nothing at that time, just traditional art.'
In one of her most famous works, Rhythm 0, Abramovic sat perfectly still for six hours, allowing the audience to do anything to her with one of 72 objects, including a gun with a bullet.
She and her former partner, Uwe Laysiepen, also stood naked at a museum door to explore how people reacted to the female and male bodies.
Asked why she has been so interested in challenging the limits of her body, she said: 'It is the most direct, challenging and difficult form of art. It is also a time-based art. Society now is moving faster and faster. But performances allow the audience to capture a sense of presence.' Abramovic is now based in New York, which she describes as the most difficult place to live. 'New York is really the place where art is needed. I don't think art is needed in nature because nature is so perfect without us,' she said.
