Juri Onuki performing art project

The time flies.  My journey of re-performing Marina Abramovic’s Imponderabilia, Point of Contact and Luminosity at Museum of Modern Art is coming to the end next week. I am sad to say good-bye to these pieces which became part of my everyday life routine, but at the same time, I am excited to celebrate the accomplishment that Marina will achieve on May 31st.

Although I got involved in this project in the beginning of its stage,  I started to perform in April due to switching my visa status. Whole 2 months of performing her works made me realized so many aspect of performance. I have been dancing most of my life, and the quality of performance in dance and Marina’s work is completely opposite.  I had never imagined what feels like to perform in stillness, nudity, and physical demanding, because I had never done such a thing before. I got an opportunity to revisit what my performance means. By the way, one of my favorite bands, Dirty Projectors has a song called Stillness is the Move. They talk about relationship in their song, but I literally mean my experience as stillness is the move. There are so many movements within stillness. I find my brain, blood in my veins, eyeballs moving, and occasional shaking or twitching of a hand or a leg remind me of the fact we, humans are movers. Now, all the exercises Marina gave us in Cleansing House workshop last fall made sense. Being present is sometimes facing the boredom, causes physical and mental pain. It’s easy to let your mind escape somewhere,  and that make the time flies. But, I have been trying to feel as many seconds, minutes as possible while I am performing. Oh, Yes, It’s so challenging, but once you hit the point where your mind is clear for certain amount of time without any effort, everything starts to make sense. I can observe myself so well, it’s almost scary.  Still, every performance is a new experiment. There is always something that is not under my control. It could be you or your partner’s physical or mental conditions, or the presence of the audience and so on. That’s also an excitement to perform her works. The exchange of energy between performers and audience, is a conversation. Sitting for 8 hours on the second floor of MoMA, she and the audience share her art. They communicate without talking. It is just beautiful.

The tasks are simple, but long. I am more than happy to have a chance to face this challenge every day. I don’t know exactly what that is, but I feel like I am on a way to somewhere. I am definitely facing a new chapter as a performer.