As recounted by anonymous sources, Biesenbach interrupted Abramović's precisely-timed 736-hour-and-30-minute marathon action in order to bask in some of the artist's accumulated megawatt company. Scheduled to endure the performer's gaze for a quarter of an hour, the curator lasted just eight minutes.After vacating the chair, applause followed; but it was obvious from Abramović's expression that something had gone wrong. The problem: Biesenbach had cut the performance short by throwing off its strict time signature. As relayed to artnet News, Abramović was livid.
According to Artforum's Linda Yablonsky, things quickly went from bad to mortifying at Abramović's celebratory dinner. Writing in the “Scene & Herd" column, Yablonsky described the excruciating series of events that followed as “the tippling Biesenbach took the podium" to kick off of the evening:
“He didn't thank anyone. Instead he used the moment to make public his two-decade-long unrequited love for Abramović. ‘Look at me, Marina,' he began. ‘Listen to me, Marina,' he went on. ‘Why don't you look at me? You know,' he then said to the guests, tossing aside his prepared remarks, ‘she can't see anyone without her glasses,' thereby negating the experience of all those sitters who thought she was paying special attention to them. This brought loud murmurs… Recalling how he had fallen in love with Abramović, twenty years his senior, at first sight, he said that he believed she had fallen in love with him, too. ‘Biggest mistake of my career,' he said.”
Aghast at the spectacle, Yablonsky added her own lapidary rejoinder. “Though clearly, not bigger than this one," she wrote, channeling the gathering's dazed chagrin.
― drash, Wednesday, 25 March 2015 11:41 (nine years ago) link