''Seven Easy Pieces'' was a series of

performances A performance is an act of staging or presenting a play, concert, or other form of entertainment. It is also defined as the action or process of carrying out or accomplishing an action, task, or function. Management science In the work place ...

given by artist

Marina Abramović Marina Abramović ( sr-Cyrl, Марина Абрамовић, ; born November 30, 1946) is a Serbian conceptual and performance artist. Her work explores body art, endurance art, feminist art, the relationship between the performer and audi ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

at the

Guggenheim Museum The Guggenheim Museums are a group of museums in different parts of the world established (or proposed to be established) by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. Museums in this group include: Locations Americas * The Solomon R. Guggenhei ...

in November 2005. Although the performance art world traditionally frowns on repeating individual works, valuing their transient, ephemeral nature as intrinsic to their essence, as she aged, Abramović found herself compelled to preserve the performances that influenced her own development as an artist. Angry at seeing so many of the ideas developed in her and others' performances being appropriated without credit, including by commercial enterprises such as advertising and fashion, Abramović committed herself to archiving seven iconic works by recreating or reinterpreting them in ''Seven Easy Pieces'', but only with the expressed consent of each of the original artists or their estates. "There's nobody to keep the history straight," she told the ''New York Times'' in an interview published in early November 2005. "I felt almost, like, obliged. I felt like I have this function to do it." ''Seven Easy Pieces'' is available on DVD. ''Seven Easy Pieces'' comprised seven individual works – two of her own and five by other artists – performed on seven consecutive nights beginning on November 9th. The combination of the individual works may be considered a primer on

post-structuralism Post-structuralism is a term for philosophical and literary forms of theory that both build upon and reject ideas established by structuralism, the intellectual project that preceded it. Though post-structuralists all present different critiques ...

. They were, in order of performance:Guggenheim exhibition web page for ''Seven Easy Pieces''
/ref> *

Bruce Nauman Bruce Nauman (born December 6, 1941) is an American artist. His practice spans a broad range of media including sculpture, photography, neon, video, drawing, printmaking, and performance. Nauman lives near Galisteo, New Mexico. Life and work ...

's '' Body Pressure'' (1974) *

Vito Acconci Vito Acconci (, ; January 24, 1940 – April 27, 2017) was an influential American performance, video and installation artist, whose diverse practice eventually included sculpture, architectural design, and landscape design. His foundational p ...

's ''

Seedbed A seedbed or seedling bed is the local soil environment in which seeds are planted. Often it comprises not only the soil but also a specially prepared cold frame, hotbed or raised bed used to grow the seedlings in a controlled environment into ...

'' (1972) *

Valie Export Valie Export (often stylized as 'VALIE EXPORT'; born 17 May 1940) is an avant-garde Austrian artist. She is best known for provocative public performances and expanded cinema work. Her artistic work also includes video installations, computer ...

's ''Action Pants: Genital Panic'' (1969) * Gina Pane's ''The Conditioning'' (1973) *

Joseph Beuys Joseph Heinrich Beuys ( , ; 12 May 1921 – 23 January 1986) was a German artist, teacher, performance artist, and art theorist whose work reflected concepts of humanism, sociology, and anthroposophy. He was a founder of a provocative art mov ...

's '' How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare'' (1965) *Abramović's own ''Lips of Thomas'' (1975) *Abramović's own ''Entering the Other Side'' (2005)

References

External links

Interview ''New York Magazine'' - Provocateur: Marina Abramovic

DVD of ''Seven Easy Pieces'', 2010
{{Performance art Performances