The artist spent 2 days on the toilet as a protest. “A symbol of the pretentiousness of contemporary art”

One of the most controversial figures in contemporary art is certainly Marina Abramović. Even the performance “Rhythm 0” was risky, during which she allowed the audience to use 72 objects against her – including those that could actually hurt her. She was whipped with roses, her hair cut off, her clothes cut and her neck mutilated. However, the Serbian artist remained unmoved because of the manifesto on the card – “I take full responsibility for everything that will be done to me”. Then she shocked with the video “Art must be beautiful / The artist must be beautiful”, in which she repeated the title words like a mantra, performing actions seemingly aimed at improving her beauty, in fact hurting herself, e.g. aggressively pulling out hair with a brush.

The performance “The Lovers” also became recognizable, marking the end of Abramović’s collaboration with his long-time partner and artist Ulay – both started their journey through the Great Wall of China and when they met halfway, they decided to part ways. Many of the performer’s ideas delight, but there are those who consider them too pretentious. One of them is Lisa Levy, who decided to argue with one of Marina’s performances, taking it to the extreme.

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An unprecedented artist

Lisa Levy is a conceptual artist, painter, and self-proclaimed psychotherapist – she plays Dr. Lisa, who psychoanalyzes people she meets on the street as well as artists on stage. Before devoting herself entirely to her art, she worked as an art director in the advertising industry. Her works have been shown in in White Columns, New Museum, Bronx Museum, or during the Pulse Art Fair. There are no taboos for her – in an interview for “High Times” she admitted that smoking marijuana is an important tool in her work, which enriches not only her work, but also the experience of visiting museums as a guest.

In 2016, she became known to the world thanks to a controversial response to Abramović’s performance from 2010 – “The Present Artist”. A Serbian performer spent a total of 700 hours sitting still at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, inviting people to sit across from her for a minute. Reactions were mixed – some cried, others made declarations of love and even spit in her face. The climax was when her ex-partner took the place in front of the artist – Marina hardly remained unmoved, and after the contractual minute had passed, she could no longer hold back her tears.

Where did the criticism of Abramovic’s idea come from?

Although for many “The Present Artist” is an inspiring experiment, Levy called it “a symbol of the pretentiousness of contemporary art” and announced her own project – “The Artist Humbly Present”. She intended to limit the duration of the performance to two days and spend two days sitting naked on a toilet bowl. Other assumptions remained the same – people from the audience could take a seat on the toilet for a moment in front of her with a ban on touching the artist.

Selfishness and pretentiousness have screwed up the quality of works in modern art. I’m also tired of the bullshit dialogue in the play that it’s run by rich people who just want a spectacular piece of art and don’t care at all about its meaning. But most of all, I think it’s going to be insanely fun to be naked in public

– wrote the artist on Facebook. However, the issue of nudity turned out to be fatal. The performance took place on January 30-31, 2016 at the Christopher Stout Gallery in New York, but both the gallery’s website and social media, where the topic was discussed, censored the photos from the event, which resulted in the report reaching a smaller number of potential recipients. On the day of the performance, Levy also clarified her opinion about Abramovic. She confessed that she is a big fan of hers, but considers “The Artist Is Present” to be a bad idea.

At first, I was impressed with her work. What I find irritating about Artist Present is that she seems to put herself above the viewer, feeling condescending towards him. What I do is the opposite of that.

she explained.

There was no controversy other than nudity

The reactions of the audience, as in the case of Marina, were varied – some spent time with the artist reading a book, others decided to dance in front of her, others – they did not dare to sit in front of her, so they watched the event from a distance. However, critics received Levy’s controversial idea positively. Among those attending the event were Brian Whitely, who in 2010 experienced the original Abramović performance.

Now I’m reliving it here in a much more modest setting. I think it hits all the notes of Marina’s song in a much more honest way. It’s a beautiful scrap.

– he said. Today, Lisa Levy no longer argues with artists, but still creates. He also runs his own radio show and a shop with his works.