Imponderabilia, 1977

    In the performance titled Imponderabilia from 1977, Marina and her collaberator Ulay stand at the entrance of a performance festival. With one of them naked on each side of the doorway the visitors must walk sideways to get through them. Each visitor must decide which one of them to face as they enter the museum. There is no way to get around them thus proclaiming that physical contact is necessary to get into the gallery. Most of the visitors tried to make as little contact as possible and looked either forward or anywhere away from the faces of Ulay and Marina.
    In this performance, Marina tests the limits of space and how far people will go to get where they want to be. She introduces them to an unfamiliar situation to produce feelings of embarrassment in an uncommon setting. It challenges sexuality by making the audience choose who they would rather face as they pass thourgh the doorway. Marina creates new feelings for the viewer that they were not expecting they would have from going to an art gallery.
    I think this performance would have been very surprising to have to encounter without being forwarned. Also I think that some people may have felt discouraged or may have left because it made them feel uncomfortable. This performance reminds me of Valie Export's performance Tap and Touch Cinema. As Exports challenges the audience to go beyond their limits and touch her breasts in the box which may cause them to feel embarrassed or uncomfortable, Imponderabilia may cause these same feelings to occur in the participants or even the bystanders of the performance. It is a very rare performance which may have created an ackward feeling in the environment surrounding it.
   
Image: "Imponderabilia." Who's In Charge?. Web. 23 Nov 2009. .

Bowie, Chas. "Marina Abramovic; Thanks, Just Looking." Portland Mercury 02 March 2006: Web.

Haberer, Lilian. "Imponderabilia, 1977." New Media Encyclopedia. 1st edition. Web. .