that's pretty amazing.

*promote

Self promoting this video and sending it back into the queue for one more try; last queued Friday, March 8th, 2013 5:10pm PST - promote requested by original submitter grinter.

seen a lot of photos of people crying, just sitting in front of her. not sure what's up with that.

http://marinaabramovicmademecry.tumblr.com/

*beautiful!

Profoundly human.

And I feel bad for the woman who went next.

I'm not sure what else one would expect from a couple of professional (melo)drama queens...

"When they felt the relationship had run its course, they decided to walk the Great Wall of China, each from one end, meeting for one last big hug in the middle and never seeing each other again." Who in their right mind lives their life this way? And then violates the agreement in public, without warning?

There are times I'm really glad I'm not afflicted with being an "artist"

what agreement? there wasn't a contract saying "NEVER SEE ME AGAIN!" they just parted ways and hadn't seen each other in like, 40 years. I don't understand why you're upset at that.

This is beautiful and if you're tripping over the spectacle of it, just forget about that for a few minutes and try and feel what they're feeling. Be human for a second, you know that emotional being that existed before the all knowing fact checking internets ruled our way of life?

Just because you don't understand their reality doesn't discredit the authenticity of their love. You will NEVER understand what it is like to be them but their love is meaningful and the ability to show this type of unashamed honesty in front of the world is a TALENT. And it is freeing. Are you free? Really? Hahahahaha

People try so hard to dismantle the beauty of emotional reality for their constantly refined objective truth -- BUT I'd rather be in love and feel what that means in my heart than know a single fact about the mechanics of our universe.

It really is as simple as that for me. Love will always move me and I will die happy for knowing that. Not even the greatest feat of mankind could dwarf the concept of sharing love with another intellect. My obsessions and ambitions are firmly rooted and actualized, but love shakes me to the core as to make all else meaningless. It makes me forget my purpose.

If this is what Christians talk about when they aren't being socio/political judges, and God is love, then I am down with that.

Raise your fist and resist, but don't resist love. It's the only thing that matters.

@grinter

Great sift. This is what makes the sift worthwhile.

Thank you.

Hear hear!
It's important to remember that skepticism is a method by which we explore what is wondrous; it is not an end in itself.

Is it really that touching if it's staged?

"they decided to walk the Great Wall of China, each from one end, meeting for one last big hug in the middle and never seeing each other again."

That sure sounds like an agreement to never see each other again, to me. Hell, that's what the frikkin sentence SAYS... If that wasn't the case, the fault for my misinterpretation has to lie pretty heavily on the writer of that sentence.

I get all the drama I need out of my own life...I don't need staged performances to feel alive. "Love", by my definition, doesn't include walking away and never seeing each other again.

They may have a different definition. But nothing requires me to buy into it, or see it as anything but yet another marketing ploy. Pretty much like most "performance art".

It's a pity he spoke. He should have at least kept the silence rule going for her current piece.

I'm all for art and all for love, but I'm with Stormsinger on this one. I have to question the authenticity and meaningfulness of a love that they decided to end with a final performance that seems a grand and eloquant publicity stunt. You are right that we cannot understand what it is to be them but I cannot help but be scornful of such a love that can so easily be discarded in such a way. To never see each other again? For the sake of an art performance?
The feelings they show for each other are moving, but the story of how they ended their prior relationship I find to be tacky and pretentious.

Perhaps they realize that the end of their earlier relationship was "tacky and pretentious". Maybe here they are saying "let's drop this bullshit"?
You don't have to be on the same trip they are on. If you don't dig it, that's cool... - don't need to knock 'em for it though.

When an artist uses themselves, and their own emotions in their work, it usually comes off as contrived and egocentric... because it is. Sure, if they focused on others we would be less likely to judge them for it. That said, life is subjective. The only authority with which they could imbue art focused on others stems from their own personal experience. That's just one step removed from the egocentric work that draws our distrust.
Perhaps love is sacred, and should not be examined or put on display. They obviously don't think so. I'm not going to tell them that they are wrong, and in the meantime I'm going to learn what I can from what they are doing.

I have no problem with using themselves or their love in their art. Indeed some of the best art comes from just that. By all means examine and put love on display, that's what makes this particular piece so moving. What bothers me is the purposeful decision to never see each other again after that one final hug. The finality of that decision done in such a public way seems extraneous, only neccessary for the art piece.

I have no way of knowing what their feelings towards one another really are so my interpretation is pure conjecture. It could be said that I shouldn't judge but this is supposed to be art and one of the mainstays of art is that viewers can take away from the piece what they will. What stuck with me about the Great Wall bit was the denial of possible futures for the sake of one performance and putting first that display ahead of their relationship and their true feelings. If they can do that then I question even the whole extent of their love, which I'm guessing was probably not their intent. This is what offends my delicate sensibilities.

Thankfully they didn't stick to that contrived agreement. If they had, this encounter would never have happened and they would have done a great disservice to themselves and their obvious feelings towards one another.