A work in which nudity plays an important role is Imponderabilia. This time, Abramović chooses this element and uses it not to uncover her fears, but to create discomfort for the spectator. It is not the public who decides on her body, leading her to undress, but rather she who has the decision-making power and uses it to investigate how the spectator will relate to her. The performance was created in collaboration with Ulay47 in 1977 and was held at the Galleria Comunale d’Arte Moderna in Bologna48. Abramović dedicates these words to the performance:
"We are standing, naked, at the main entrance of the Museum, facing each other. The public entering the Museum must pass through, sideways, the small space between us. And every person who passes must choose which of us two to face."1
The two artists create a limiting experience: they stand facing each other, blocking the only entrance to the exhibition, forcing anyone who wishes to enter to pass between them.
This is a provocation that forces an intimate experience, a reflection on the relationship between artist and audience. The two create a boundary to cross, a passage from the real world to immersion in art.
Performances are born as ephemeral marks to leave on the world, in an attempt to make an impression on social culture, to communicate a message. They are documented, but the possibility of reliving them, of experiencing those emotions, positive or negative, is impossible. And while this is their distinctive characteristic, the current development of technology can allow for the recreation of these works, in an attempt to experience them. Clearly, the perception can never be the same between a real experience and an immersive one in a virtual world, but we will have the opportunity to analyze in the last chapter how some artists have already involved this technology in an attempt to expand their art.
Indeed, the focal point of performance is interaction with the public: Imponderabilia also analyzes this aspect and focuses on the decision-making nature. The two artists force a choice: which side to turn to, to look Abramović or Ulay in the eye?
There is another interesting aspect that this performance offers us to analyze: the embarrassment a person feels when becoming an active participant in such a performance. The real viewer is forced to overcome their mental limits, imposed by society, by the culture of the time, by a restrictive vision, which art itself tries to expand. The spectators of these performances find themselves in a condition of active participation. However, some individuals, by choice or due to external factors, remain distant from these artistic experiences. These people, often the most vulnerable, suffer most from the impact of ignorance, cultural limitations, and popular beliefs that hinder their intellectual growth. Consequently, their ability to understand and expand their knowledge is limited. Unfortunately, this numerically significant group of people encounters greater difficulties in accepting and understanding progress, negatively influencing it due to their resistance. In more restricted and elitist contexts, such as the artistic one, this dynamic is further amplified. As we have seen previously, the understanding and acceptance of novelty in art are complex processes, as is the identification of correct methods for the use and valorization of the new. Art, as an innovative expression, often finds itself having to face these challenges. However, some visionary artists have been able to recognize the inherent potential in new technologies, integrating them into their creations. In particular, artists who work with the body as an expressive medium have been among the first to adopt technology in their works. In this way, an innovative art, characterized by an innovative medium, has embraced technology, further expanding its horizons.
1In the book The Artist is Present, published in 2010 on the occasion of the eponymous performance held at MoMA in New York, the artist described the 1977 performance in these terms.
