Marco Anelli: Portraits in the Presence of Marina Abramovic

After becoming an internet sensation, Marco Anelli’s powerful portraits of sitters in the historic 2010 Marina Abramovic performance at The Museum of Modern Art, New York are now collected and available in their entirety in this volume. The centerpiece of the landmark retrospective Marina Abramovic: The Artist Is Present was Abramovic herself, who sat silently in the museum’s atrium, inviting visitors to take a seat across from her for as long as they chose. She sat every day for the run of the show--716 hours and 30 minutes--and faced more than 1,500 people, whose participation completed the work. Marco Anelli’s photographic project captured every interaction, taking a portrait of each participant and noting the time they spent in the chair. Just as Abramovic’s piece concerned duration, the photographs give the viewer a chance to experience the performance from Abramovic’s perspective. They reveal both dramatic and mundane moments, and speak to the humanity of such interactions, just as the performance itself did. The resultant photographs are mesmerizing and intense, putting a face to the world of art lovers while capturing what they shared during their contact with the artist.