Our minds are limitless. Our thinking sees no limit. We can imagine perfection, we can see it crystal clear in our head. We are perfect in our thinking. I can easily imagine now, if I close my eyelids, a perfect world, a perfect human being, a perfect - anything. That is how our minds were crafted; to be boarder-less. However, our minds are incubated in our enemy - our body. Our body on the other hand is limited. With our body, we can't get to half the places we go to in our minds.
Marina Abramovic is the self-proclaimed grandmother of performance art. She has been indulging in fearless performances since the 1970s. Although she deals with many themes, one her most popular themes is the human body and its limits. I came to study about Marina Abramovic after taking a spectacular Performance Art class with Cornelia Krafft (German performance and installation artist, at the American University of Beirut). After researching Marina's works, I became obsessed with her works which depict the body limit.
After performing Rhythm 5, (photo above, 1974) in which Abramovic lost consciousness she said: "I was very angry because I understood there is a physical limit: when you lose consciousness you can’t be present; you can’t perform." -Marina, Daneri. Read more about this and many other performances here.
In one her most talked-about performances, Rhythm 0 (photos above, 1974) Marina lays on long table 72 objects, some of which give the human body pain while the other give pleasure. You would find grapes, cake, rope, knives, a locked gun, chains, glass...etc. The audience was allowed to apply those objects, in any way, on Marina, while she laid down. At first people felt intimidated, however with time people started to go rough on the artist. She said she felt that she created this aggressive atmosphere. You wouldn't think human being would go that far - but they did. Give human beings a reason to hurt one another and they'll go all the way.
In a recent interview for Lady Gaga, Marina Abramovic asked the pop icon "Who creates limits?" Lady Gaga went on explaining that we create our own limits, although she somehow seemed to not have understood or misinterpreted Marina's works, Gaga explained that we create our own limits and that's it. She didn't explain how and went on talking about how Marina Abramovic is limitless and incredible and wonderful. If anything, Marina has been trying to explain how limited our body is. Check out the interview here.
Our body imposes an 'unfair' siege on our mind. Take for example flying. I dream of flying every now and in my mind I see myself doing it. I even experience the most intense euphoric rush whilst only imaging it. But my body fails me, a four-meter leap doesn't give you any rush. It'll give you a broken hip and a couple of bruises. Our minds, thoughts and soul are free, our body is not.
