Marina Abramović re-enacts her most famous performance to benefit Ukraine

More than 1,500 people sat across from Marina Abramović during her 2010 presentation of The artist is present at MoMA, all photographed. If you missed your chance, then you’re in luck.

This month, the serbian artist will revisit his most famous work of art for an auction to benefit Ukrainian relief efforts.

By Artsy’s auction platform, you can bid for the opportunity to be photographed sitting across from Abramović in a revival of The artist is present at the Sean Kelly Gallery, where a study of his work is currently on display. Photographer Marco Anelli, a longtime collaborator of the artist who captured portraits of each MoMA model 12 years ago, will take the photos.

The resulting photograph will be framed and signed by Abramović and Anelli. Winners will also receive a copy of the 2021 Photographer’s Book collecting images from MoMA, Portraits in the presence of Marina Abramović.

Bidding for the two auction lots (one for a photo with a single model; the other for two models) is open until March 25. As of this writing, bidding for the lots is $4,000 and $5,000, respectively. All proceeds from the sale will go to Direct Relief’s Aid Efforts in Ukraine.

The idea for the auction came from two Sean Kelly employees, archivist Robert Spring and gallery associate Terrill Warrenburg, shortly after Abramović’s exhibit opened on March 4. Kelly loved the idea, and when he phoned Abramović about it, she did too.

Two weeks later, the auction was live online. “We felt we had to do something quickly,” he told Artnet News. “We just think it’s imperative to get the money into people’s hands as quickly as possible.”

In October, Abramovic erected a public memorial in Babyn Yar, a ravine in kyiv where thousands of Jews were executed by the Nazis during World War II. Earlier this month, in its ongoing attack on Ukraine, Russia bombed next to the site, killing five people in the process. (Abramović’s monument was not damaged, Kelly confirmed.)

“Last year I worked in Ukraine and got to know the people there,” the artist said in a video she posted in February denouncing the actions of Russia. (The video was posted before the Babyn Yar attack.) “They are proud, they are strong and they are dignified. I stand in full solidarity with them on this impossible day. An attack on Ukraine is an attack on all of us. This is an attack on humanity and it must be stopped.

Abramović’s current exhibition at Sean Kelly, titled “Performative,” brings together four key artworks from his 50-year career.

“Presented together, these various bodies of work demonstrate how Abramović has shaped the trajectory of performance art over the past five decades and changed the public’s perception and interaction with this art form,” reads -on in a gallery release. It is on view until April 16.

In addition to the auction, Kelly will be donating to Direct Relief through a GoFundMe page.

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