Trailblazing performance artist Marina Abramovic's latest project may prove to be her most ambitious yet: she's trying to raise $15 million to build a performance art center in Hudson, New York (a.k.a. Williamsburg-on-Hudson), to be located in a former theater that's fallen into disrepair. The 23,000-square-foot facility is designed by Shohei Shigematsu and Rem Koolhaas of the firm OMA, and—if it ever gets built—will feature auditoriums for long-duration performances, and specially-designed reclining massage chairs to fall asleep in.
The chairs will be on wheels, and, as Abramovic envisions it, each audience member will have their own personal attendant who will roll any sleepers out of the room into a special nap area. "When you arrive,” Abramovic tells the Times, "you have to sign a contract that you will stay a minimum of six hours.” (Those who wish to break the contract will be hunted from helicopters permitted to leave early.) “The concept is very clear,” she said. “I’m asking you to give me your time, and if you give me your time, I give you experience."
Abramovic hopes to break ground on the Marina Abramovic Institute for the Preservation of Performance Art at the end of next year, assuming she can raise the money. But the woman is practically a force of nature, and it's hard to imagine her failing to achieve this goal. "I would like to make a levitation room," she tells the Times. "I would like to have a digital temple. There will be a room for drinking water and drinking water in slow motion." It's all very impressive, though it seems a little unfair that performance artists are getting a fancy building all to themselves, while jugglers have been homeless for centuries.
