Marina Abramović’s ‘Imponderabilia’ and Audience Vulnerability

by Natasha Long

Marina Abramović. The Artist is Present (2010). Performance, three months. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. The Marina Abramović Archives. Photo: Marco Anelli. From: The Royal Academy Website. 

An imponderable situation cannot be definitely explained, determined, measured or evaluated. This type of situation, rooted in the unknown, is exactly what the iconic Serbian performance artist Marina Abramović constructs for audiences in her art piece ‘Imponderabilia’. On September 20th, 1975 Abramović met Frank Uwe Laysiepen, the artist known as Ulay. Described as a meeting of destiny by Abramović, the encounter launched the intense artistic and emotional relationship between the two, who collaborated on numerous performance works in the following years.  

 Marina Abramović and ULAY. Imponderabilia. 1977/2010. The Museum of Modern Art. https://www.moma.org/audio/playlist/243/3119  

‘Imponderabilia’ is a performance piece by both artists, first realised in June 1977 in the Museum of Modern Art in Bologna. Abramović and Ulay rebuilt the entrance architecture of the museum by adding pillars which executed a new narrow entryway, and stood face to face in this space, completely naked. By engineering this restricted entrance, the public had only one option for entering the museum: squeezing between Abramović and Ulay. The space was so tight that they could not enter frontally, forcing them to confront one of the artists directly. This meant that as visitors passed through they experienced a sensorial encounter, touching the naked bodies, as the performers stared directly in each other’s eyes, as if unaware of visitor interference into their space. Conceptually, “the idea was the artist as door of the museum”, merging the corporeal and architecture, the naked body became the new opening to the building’s interior. The concept of an opening has been viewed as evoking the “natal”, the visitor was born into new territory in the museum.  

Crucially for this iconic work, by entering the gallery, a collaboration occurred between performer and spectator, the public activated and became a part of this work. Thus, ‘Imponderabilia’ operates on the relationship between the artist and public, the visitors share space with the performers and become the crucial component in facilitating the performance which is reliant on their participation. Significantly, the original performance was intended to be six hours long. However, after three hours the police came and shut the work down on the grounds of lack of passport documentation that could not be supplied instantaneously by Abramović  and Ulay. The performance piece was considered explicit at the time of its first realisation in 1977. Perhaps this further facilitated Abramović and Ulay’s intention, to shed light on societal bodily restrictions and question artistic freedom.  

Marina Abramović, Imponderabilia, 1977/2023. Live performance by Rowena Gander and Kieram Corrin Mitchell, 60 minutes. Courtesy of the Marina Abramović Archives. Photo: Royal Academy of Arts, London/ David Parry 

At the 2010 exhibition for Marina Abramović at the MoMA, New York, the piece was re-performed with four couples and aimed to demonstrate how a work that originally played out in 1977 can be as equally potent in 2010. More recently, a further testament to the work remaining pertinent in the museum was its re-performance at the Royal Academy, London, in Abramović’s retrospective that began September 23rd 2023. With Ulay’s passing in 2020 and Abramović no longer performing herself (instead having her own school for performance art, teaching the Marina Abramović Method to the next generation of performance artists), younger performers took on the role of naked figures, for one hour long rotations. Crucially, for this exhibition, there was a separate entryway to the following gallery room that could be used if the visitor did not desire to participate in the experience, creating a multiple choice scenario for audiences in the contemporary museum. The piece is thus less forceful than its first realisation in 1977. Ultimately, even if a viewer did not pass through the narrow space, the Royal Academy viewed the work as still impactful, the audience member was still prompted to consider the reasons underlying the choice they made. Significantly, upon visiting the exhibition, audience discomfort at the scenario was clear for some visitors who vocally expressed their distress and awkwardness at touching naked flesh.  

Thus, ‘Imponderabilia’ is significant for highlighting audience vulnerability, testing individual visitor reactions as they experience an unfamiliar scenario. Despite the nakedness of the performers rendering them exposed to visitor interference with their personal space, the audience is self-aware of their responses and their own vulnerabilities come to the fore. Abramović effectively prompts the audience to become alert to their own potential discomfort with such close proximity to the naked body. As the audience collaborates in the performance, they lose “voyeuristic powers”, taking on a new participatory role becoming embedded in the piece. They participate only fleetingly, but the simple act of traversing the art museum becomes a scene of taboo.  

Working with the audience is crucial to Abramović’s artistic practice. Ulay and Abramović together explored the concept of “durational co-presence” in their performances. Here, the examination of co-presence occurs between performance and also their transient interaction with each clothed visitor who slips between the naked flesh. Moreover, it has been noted that viewers are forced to choose which orientation to take, facing the male or the female, interpreted as a “gendered frontal caress, it was not possible to pass through neutrally”. Commentators have noted the heterosexual formation of the two artists, suggesting that the work becomes “queered” through the repeated interference of participants who can be anyone who chooses to take part in the experience.  

Marina Abramović, Four Crosses: The Evil (positive). 2019. Corian, aluminium, iron, oak with LED panels. 550 x 356 x29 cm. From the Marina Abramović Archives. The Royal Academy Website. 

In ‘Imponderabilia’ Abramović tests her audience. Today, the work is no less shocking or powerful for the public than its first performance in 1977. Thus, the effect of ‘Imponderabilia’ is timeless. Each visitor hesitates with how to act, aware they cannot pass neutrally, experiencing an intimate and unfamiliar bodily encounter. Abramović has said “I cannot do anything without an audience, I need their energy”. This energy fuels ‘Imponderabilia’, which invites audiences to be bold, vulnerable and open to the imponderable.  

Bibliography 

Marina Abramović. Exhibition Catalogue. Royal Academy Publications, London: Royal Academy of Arts. 2023.  

“Marina Abramović and ULAY. Imponderabilia. 1977/2010”. MoMA. Marina Abramović, The Artist is Present. https://www.moma.org/audio/playlist/243/3119 

Alex Marshall. “Marina Abramović Relents and Adapts a Provocative Piece for Today”. The New York Times. September 25, 2023. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/25/arts/design/marina-abramovic-royal-academy-imponderabilia.html  

“Exhibition. Marina Abramović”. Royal Academy of Arts.  https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibition/marina-abramovic?sourceNumber=730348