Mirror Your Audience: Four Life Lessons From Performance Artist Marina Abramović

Marina Abramović, a renowned performance artist, has lived a life that offers profound lessons. Her artistry and experiences provide valuable insights into mirroring your audience, a concept that can be transformative in various aspects of life.

Marina Abramovic performed The Artist is Present, sitting eight hours a day for three months in 2010

She trained for months to build the physical stamina to perform the piece, and in her memoir Walk Through Walls she comments on how the performance demonstrated the profound need for people to connect.

• Here are some of her insights from her memoir that transcend performance art.

On art

“What is art? I feel that if we see art as something isolated, something holy and separate from everything, that means it’s not life. Art must be a part of life.”

• Another famous piece of hers was done in a gallery space, where she lived in front of the audience in three open rooms.

On the Business of Art

The business of creating and the business of selling one’s creations require different skills and temperaments

• Choices close some doors and open others
• Having a personal definition of success is critical
• When we know our capabilities, we can set ourselves up for success by knowing how and where to ask for help

On fear

The relationship we have with fear can be one of the defining relationships of our life

• Finding a way to accept and process our fears is an ongoing task that can be mastered by willingly exploring them
• Part of dealing with fear is acknowledging it
• When we confront what we are afraid to do, we find immense opportunities to develop and grow because we increase our options and adaptability

On Finding Your Place

Paying attention to our moments as we experience them helps us find our place.

• We need to explore until we find our “clicks.”
• In the dynamic nature of performance art, Abramovic has found her medium to explore the nature of art itself, moving through physical pain in pursuit of artistic expression, and to communicate with her audience.

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