The exhibition is the second of the major events which the artist, the pioneer and key fgure of Body Art, will present in the city. On the previous day, she will present The Abramović Method at the PAC museum. Both events are new projects – and, indeed, the phrase “an artist should never repeat him/herself” is part of her “Artist’s life Manifesto” – the frst to be presented after the titanic performance The Artist is present, given at MoMA in New York in 2010.
The title of the exhibition, which also describes the new state of the artist, comes from a rewarding and regenerating method of exercise: With Eyes Closed I See Happiness. It is an attainable truth which reveals infnite possibilities in its implied invitation to look inside yourself, leaving the world far behind. The importance of this practice is emphasized by a group of sculptures placed on glass pedestals, made from a plaster cast of the artist’s head covered in quartz crystals, tourmaline stones, amethyst, malachite and aragonite. A series of large photographic works contribute to the atmosphere and illustrate the simple and unadorned gestures made by the artist to elevate her spirit.
These silent and exhausting trials of ecstatic contemplation are designed to reach a state of equilibrium, to give importance to things, and to perceive their heat and energy. The empty and emptied space which surrounds the fgure of Abramović in the photographs symbolically fxes the action and amplifes the perception of it. The emptiness is there to condense the need for clarity which is the necessary prelude to any type of concentration. Because only in the dense and illuminated time of meditation and in the active truce of silence is it possible to make space and attain the essence.
