The official announcement came a few days ago directly from Christie’s: Marina Abramović's Mixed Reality work The Life will be auctioned in London in Autumn 2020, during Frieze Week. It is in effect the first digital performance offered in the auction, and will take place in conjunction with the exhibition Marina Abramović: 50 Years of Pioneering Performance Art at the Royal Academy of Arts, London.
The Life was premiered at the Serpentine Gallery in London in February 2019, and over the course of six days Abramović presented the public with something never seen before. Her unprecedented piece led to unprecedented sales: tickets to watch the performance sold out in less than two hours.
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The Life is a digital performance lasting 19 minutes, based on volumetric acquisition that transports the observer into a dimension somewhere between pure reality and the purely virtual. During the performance, a virtual version of the artist, dressed in red with hair tied back, moves in a circular space of 5 meters and ‘interacts’ with the spectators.
Working with this new technology, discovering its infinite possibilities – because we are talking about something that really captures performance in its essence – has been revolutionary for me...
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All participants were required to leave personal devices behind and put on a pair of virtual reality glasses before entering Mixed Reality. They were then assisted into different positions by employees in lab coats. Visitors watched Abramović's performance through the glasses, and the event, although digital, appears to be absolutely real. Unlike virtual reality, which is completely simulated, Mixed Reality showed the digital version of Abramović superimposed on top of the gallery and other visitors as they exist in reality. Abramović told Christie's that her performance also concerns the concept of immortality, "Because you are there, preserved forever".
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The performance was produced by Tin Drum, a studio that works exclusively in Mixed Reality. Todd Ecker, director, said: "In a hundred years, there will still be people who see Marina enter a room, feeling that sense of connection and human experience."
At 72, Marina Abramović created a true digital version of herself: "Working with this new technology, discovering its infinite possibilities – because we are talking about something that really captures performance in its essence – has been revolutionary for me," he said.
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The performance that will go to auction at Christie's is one of three editions to date. As for the price, there is still no official communication from the auction house, but the estimate may be around $700,000 (£542,000), far less than the cost of $1.3 million (£1 million) required to produce The Life. The work will be presented on a world tour to offer collectors, enthusiasts and the merely curious the opportunity to be a part of the experience. The dates will be announced next spring, so keep a lookout!
