Professional Documents
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The experience of the live event in Samuel Beckett's play Waiting for
Godot and Marina Abramović’s performance The Artist is Present
Rebecca Camilleri
(472886 M)
A dissertation presented to the Faculty of Arts in part fulfillment of the requirements for the
Master of Arts in Modern and Contemporary Literature and Criticism at the University of Malta.
July 2015
i
Abstract
The analysis of Samuel Beckett’s play Waiting for Godot (1953) and Marina Abramović’s
performance The Artist is Present (2010) outlines the literary and visual techniques used to
create the theatrical and performative experience. Chapter one discusses how Beckett’s text
omits dramatic representation and Abramović installs her body in an empty gallery to
challenge the spectator to actively participate in the experience of the live event. Chapter two
analyzes the staging of no ‘thing’ in the works, and the following chapter supports the
argument with a critical evaluation of the physical body in the theatrical and performative
experience. Chapter four examines the relationship between space and time in the two-act
script which was originally written to be staged in a theatrical setting and the durational
performance in the art gallery. Chapter five focuses on the space of silence which is created
in both works and observes the effect this has on their interpretation. Finally, the analysis
draws attention to the cultural value of the two case studies. The analysis supported with
phenomenological and performance theory and critiques of the discussed work acknowledges
the importance of that which occurs between performer and spectator in the experience of
waiting. The thesis concludes with the present value of Beckett’s play and Abramović’s
performance in contemporary culture, and notes that their future is dependent on the eventual
present time.
ii
UNIVERSITY OF MALTA
FACULTY OF ARTS
DECLARATION
Criticism)
Title of Dissertation: Waiting for Nothing: The experience of the live event in Samuel
Beckett’s play Waiting for Godot and Marina Abramović’s performance The Artist is
Present
I hereby declare that I am the legitimate author of this Dissertation and that it is my original
work.
No portion of this work has been submitted in support of an application for another degree
or qualification of this or any other university or institution of learning.
REBECCA CAMILLERI
Date: 13/07/2015
iii
Acknowledgements
Melanie Thompson, for understanding the pain of being an artist pursuing an academic
career.
Table of Contents
Abstract ……………………………………………………………………………………….i
Declaration ……………………………………………………………………………...…....ii
Acknowledgements …………………………………………………...…………………….iii
Chapter Four The Live Event: The Interplay of Space and Time …………………………50
Bibliography ………………………………………………………………………………..90
1
Chapter One
Introduction
The comparative study of Samuel Beckett’s play Waiting for Godot (1953) and Marina
Abramović’s performance The Artist is Present (2010) provides an analysis of the literary
technique and the dramaturgical tools to examine the experience evoked in the live event.
The research highlights the similarities and differences of the use of objects and the
performers’ bodies in the works to demonstrate how both the avant-garde playwright and the
happen. Beckett’s script and its application in a theatre setting and Abramović’s physical
presence in a contemporary art gallery challenge the audience as the minimal use of object in
both works forms an experience which cannot be perceived rationally. Through space and
time, the artists create a sense of waiting which seeks to unite performer and spectator in a
sensory experience. How does the audience perceive the live performance event and what are
The research analyzes Beckett’s script and Abramović’s performance content and provides a
theoretical framework to examine the roles of the object and body in the drama and
performance art piece. The study applies the work of two philosophers: Edmund Husserl and
Maurice Merleau-Ponty and the two case studies mentioned above. Husserl’s philosophy is
perception. It is through sensory perception that we engage with objects and events, thus
1
Edmund Husserl, Cartesian Meditations: An Introduction to Phenomenology (Dordrecht: Springer Science &
Business Media, 1960), p. 28.
2
which he designates to go beyond the material composition of objects. He claims all objects,
in their essence, are ‘objects of possible consciousness’. 2 His theory is relevant to this study
as it examines the physical tools of the drama and the performance as a means to facilitate an
experience of consciousness.
of enquiry based on the concept of an embodied consciousness. His theory is used to evaluate
the physical body in the theatrical and performative experience and explains the perceptual
experience that occurs through the relationship between spectator and performer. The
articulated through performance practice. Juxtaposing the two philosophical views, the
outlines the effect of the two different theatrical approaches and discusses the relevance of
Renowned as a modern classic, Beckett’s Waiting for Godot is based on two characters,
Vladimir (Didi) and Estragon (Gogo) who wait for Godot by a tree at the side of a country
road. The scenes of the play are based on the relationship of the protagonists who struggle to
assert themselves in relation to the space and to each other. Didi and Gogo fail to find a
experience’ which means that Beckett intentionally creates a play in which the object is in
fact ‘an experience […] and is nothing in reality’. 3 Husserl’s theory supports Beckett’s choice
2
Ibid., p. 52.
3
Edmund Husserl, Logical Investigations, Volume 2 (Oxon: Routledge, 2001), p. 99.
3
of no object in space as in the presence of no ‘thing’, the spectator unites with the
‘What are we doing here, that is the question’ is the quest over the duration of the play. 4 The
impossibility of finding an answer to their question leads them to realize that there is
conclusive answer. Reflecting the interdependence of the two protagonists, he creates another
two characters, the deprived Pozzo and Lucky who together revive the scenes of the play
from the repetitive patterns of waiting. The contrasting couple sets a new pace to the play and
The play is a philosophical dialectic; the characters have no story and the only information
provided is that they are waiting for Godot in the empty space. In 1961, theatre critic and
scholar Martin Esslin identified a group of avant-garde dramatists who challenged theatrical
conventions. In his essay The Theatre of the Absurd (1962), which will be referenced at
several points in this thesis, Esslin includes Beckett’s Godot as one of the examples to portray
the shift in the trends of modern drama. Esslin notes that the play is constructed on a dialogue
that fails to provide a rational logic. As the word ceases to correspond with the action, the
‘force and poetic power of the play lie precisely in the impossibility of ever reaching a
conclusive answer to this question’ remarks the critic. 6 Although the characters are
constantly engaged in a dialogue, there is never progression and Godot never appears.
The usage of language is marked by Esslin as one of the differences between conventional
theatre and the absurd. He claims that the experience of the theatrical performance relies on
4
Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot: A Tragicomedy in Two Acts (New York: Grove Press Inc., 1954), p. 91.
5
Ibid., p. 20.
6
Martin Esslin, ‘The Theatre of the Absurd’, The Tulane Drama Review, 4 (1960), 3-15, in JSTOR
< http://www.jstor.org/stable/1124873 > [accessed 1 October 2014] (p.14).
4
that ‘which is multidimensional and more than merely language or literature, which is the
only instrument to express the bewildering complexity of the human'. 7 Thus, through the
empty space and the strong correlation between the nonsensical dialogue and the physical
activity of the performers, Beckett designs a theatrical experience which is also dependent on
the interpretative stance of the spectator. As the phenomenological theory shall illustrate, the
playwright’s technique reduces the object and triggers a mode of enquiry which leads the
Like Didi and Gogo, Marina Abramović sits in a space in which nothing seems to happen.
The performance The Artist is Present (2010) was first presented in a gallery in New York’s
Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). Her performance retrospective provides an insight into her
research and methodology as she exhibits the documentation and remaking of her past pieces,
allowing visitors to follow her artistic trajectory. The performance artist includes her own
body in the exhibition; she sits, waiting in stillness in one of the galleries. The space is bare
with only a table and an empty chair. The setup in the gallery invites the spectator to sit in
front of the artist. Thus, the exhibition displays the relationship between the two bodies in
which ‘there would be nothing between me and the viewer: just direct transmission of
energy’ explains Abramović. 8 The sensorial experience is dependent on the spectator who
becomes an active participant and shares a moment of direct eye contact with the artist.
Hence, similar to Beckett’s play, in Abramović’s work, the object of the performance is the
intentional experience which is created by the presence of both spectator and performer.
7
Ibid., p. 13.
8
Mary Jane Jacob, ‘Marina Abramović’ in Buddha Mind in Contemporary Art, ed. by Jacquelynn Baas and
Mary Jane Jacob (California: University of California Press, 2004), pp. 186-196 (p. 187).
5
strategy of The Artist is Present. In fact, the artist presents the performance as part of an
exhibition of her past experimental, featuring early interventions, installations, video works,
sound pieces and performances. As a child, the artist was raised by her parents under strict
communist discipline. Her early works reflect the intensity of this experience, such as the
performance Lips of Thomas (1975), in which the artist cuts the five-pointed Communist star
into her stomach with a razor blade. Abramović marks the ideology on her body, exhibits the
wounding process and engages the audience as they witness the risk she undertakes.
Abramović’s interest in the body as a tool in performance inspires her to research various
traditional and cultural ascetic practices. ‘In every ancient culture, there are rituals to mortify
the body as a way of understanding that the energy of the soul is indestructible’ says the
artist. 9 Like the ancient traditions, she pursues an artistic career which seeks to go beyond the
boundaries of the physical body. This is prominent in the six hour performance Freeing the
Body (1976), in which Abramović stands naked moving her body to the rhythm of an African
drum until she reaches exhaustion. The performance demonstrates the artist’s determination
in reaching a point of emptiness through the repeated extreme actions. Following her early
solo work, Abramović presents a series of works with collaborative partner Ulay. Between
1981 and 1987, the artists present Nightsea Crossing, a series of twenty-two performances
during which they fast and sit motionless in front of each other for seven hours. She replaces
the cyclical repetition with stillness and continues to place her body in dangerous settings,
this time in relation to another physical body. After a twelve year relationship, the duo split
up, and the performance artist is left to continue her own exploration.
9
Judith Thurman, ‘Walking Through Walls: Marina Abramović’s performance art’, The New Yorker, 8 March ,
2010 <http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/03/08/walking-through-walls> [accessed 21 December 2014]
6
As discussed in this chapter, both Beckett and Abramović work with the relationship between
the object and the performer’s body in an empty space to engage the spectator in the live
similar, their methodology is different. A crucial difference between the two works is the role
of the artists. Beckett is the playwright of Waiting for Godot, and thus relies on the choices of
the director and the skills of the performers in the execution of his script. Although Beckett’s
direction of the play stops with the written text, he commands the director through the script
which includes detailed descriptive action within the play’s dialogue. Through these
instructions, the playwright determines how the physical bodies of the performers are
required to act in the space. On the other hand, Abramović is the creator and performer of her
work. The Artist is Present is conceptual; the spatial design in which the artist’s body is
exhibited complements the idea, as in the absence of objects and action, the spectator
experiences the durational stillness. Despite this difference in approach, both artists choose to
empty the space from objects, leaving only the presence of the living body. Through the
elements of repetition, duration and stillness, the minimalist technique creates a sense of a
space in which there is nothing, but emptiness. Yet, this emptiness is not nothing.
The second chapter titled ‘A Space of No ‘Thing’ in Performance’, traces through the
dramaturgical content of both works to explain the shift of perception triggered by the space
of no object in performance. With references to the literary canon, the research outlines the
the material element of the object and focuses on the experience of its origin. His theoretical
reduce the object, dismiss rationality and create works which are functional through the live
7
experience. The analysis is supported by Martin Esslin’s critique of the absurd, which has
been referenced in this chapter, and an overview of contemporary life performance events by
The third chapter titled ‘The Body: A Physical Representation or a Real Being?’ provides an
in-depth analysis of the body in the performances. The discourse outlines the main
serves to explain the function of the physical body in both live events. Husserl distinguishes
between physical body (Körper) and the living body (Leib), marking the differences between
the appearance of the physical body and the body which acts as a source to engage the
relationship of the body and the object, Merleau-Ponty discusses the reciprocal relationship in
which the body forms an intertwining relationship with the world. Thus, subject and object
become one entity through the process of perception. In performance, this process is
witnessed in the exchange between performer and the spectator. The case studies are further
analyzed through the concept of embodiment and the physical presence of the actors and
performers to explain how the live experience is formed. This chapter also includes
references to the history of avant-garde theatre and performance art and studies the historical
The fourth chapter titled ‘The Live Event: The Interplay of Space and Time’ highlights the
artistic methodologies with regards to the visual representations of space and time. The
interplay of the two elements manipulates the live event to enact the experience of
consciousness through the character of Godot and the presence of the artist. This is explained
through Husserl’s theory which claims that the object is perceived in the unity of one space
8
and one time. Alternatively, Merleau-Ponty suggests that it is the experience which unites the
spectator with the performing body that enables the sensation of present time. Therefore, the
experience of time is dependent on the presence of the living body. Beckett’s script and
Abramović’s performance are studied in relation to the contextual meanings of the selected
spaces to explain why the artists choose empty space. The research looks into different
minimalist style do not affect the thematic structure of the play. The Artist is Present is
discussed in light of the social meaning of the gallery to demonstrate how the choice of space
affects the reception of the performer’s body in the exhibition. Thus, this chapter explains
why the fixed spatial composition is necessary to construct the experience of waiting.
The fifth chapter titled ‘The Spectator: A Co-Creator in the Experience of Consciousness’
focuses on the space of silence that is present in the theatre and performance works. Beckett’s
narrative continuously runs with moments of silence, whilst in the performance piece
Abramović is silent throughout. The analysis confirms that the interpretation of the live event
is dependent on the experience generated not simply through the artistic methodologies but
simultaneously on the spectator’s perspective. The chapter highlights Beckett’s use of silence
depicted through the character of Godot and the physical stillness of the performers in
Abramović’s exhibition and explains the effect this experience has on the spectator. The
application of the phenomenological theory to this discussion outlines how in the live events
the body is a present consciousness. Therefore, the spectator perceives consciousness through
his own living body. In this process, the spectator is not only aware of the consciousness of
the performer, but also of his own consciousness in the presence of the performer’s body.
Examining the role of the spectator and the interpretation of the works, the study goes on to
investigate the contemporary value of these two productions. Drawing examples of Beckett’s
production and looking into Abramović’s work following The Artist is Present, the
9
arguments sustains that the subject of the nature of consciousness is universal and therefore
The discussion of object, body, space and time in the course of these chapters formulates a
study of Beckett’s and Abramović’s artistic methodology to explain the nature of the
experience in the live events. The analysis of style, genre and context is supported by
interviews. The research combines practice and theory to explain why Beckett’s script and
Abramović’s performance succeed in engaging the audience in the experience of the live
event.
10
Chapter Two
spectator and the space in which this encounter happens. The physical space brings to life
formal or conceptual ideas through physical, textual and visual elements. Thus, the theatrical
space is designed and structured in a specific way to form relationships between the
performer, the surrounding objects and space and the audience who witnesses the event. As
the artistic ideas and concepts come to life, they are perceived through the spectator’s sensory
perception to create a live experience. In Waiting for Godot and The Artist is Present, the
artists choose to work with empty space. Beckett’s script and Abramović’s concept are
mediated through a live performance event, staged in a space with a minimal set. How does
The object is present in space to represent something; thus its presence has an important role
in the experience of the live event. In theatre and performance, the prop and the object are
mediums perceived through their relation with other objects, the space and the actors or
performers. In Beckett’s play, the only object which the characters and the spectator can
relate to is a tree. Similarly, Marina Abramović builds a set in the art gallery with two chairs
and a table in between. Even in the presence of a minimal number of objects, the space
contains visual information which composes the spectator’s experience. The minimal set in
Beckett’s and Abramović’s work shifts the attention from that which is visible onto the
accentuate the bodies of the performers in the live event. In the works of Beckett and
Abramović, the space of few objects is reflected onto the action and movement of the
existential void and Abramović’s conceptual idea of emptiness. The artists develop their
themes through physical emptiness. The lack of object requires the spectator to engage to the
presence of the performer in relation to the space of no ‘thing’. The visual scene together
with the action and movement stimulates the spectator’s sensory perception. Thus, the
spectator perceives the space of no object through the live bodies which relate to the world to
create a live experience. In the live event how does the space of no ‘thing’ contribute to the
Before delving into the analysis of the case studies and the theoretical research, it is important
to specify the significance of the term nothing during the course of this discussion.
Meditations in classic literature demonstrate that since early Western philosophy, writers
used the term nothing to make reference to human consciousness. Plato, in the Apology of
Socrates, claims ‘he knows something, although he knows nothing’. 10 The philosopher’s
assertion demonstrates that being conscious of knowing nothing paradoxically implies man is
aware of his own consciousness. Thus, beyond intellect, there is an intuitive knowledge.
Nothing also reverberates in Shakespeare’s King Lear. ‘Nothing can be made out of nothing’
(1.4.127) despairs Lear as he witnesses the disintegration of his kingdom. 11 This line from the
play is essentially connected to consciousness. One might argue that as man’s presence in the
world represents a human body with a conscious awareness of himself and others, the
presence of a living body cannot mean nothing. Therefore, Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy
dwells on intellectual knowledge and states that ‘All we can know is that we know nothing.
And that’s the height of human wisdom’. 12 This wisdom is fundamental in the experience of
10
Plato, ‘Apology’ in Page By Page Books
<http://www.pagebypagebooks.com/Plato/Apology/APOLOGY_p3.html> [accessed 12 September 2014]
11
William Shakespeare, King Lear, ed. R.A. Foakes (London: The Arden Shakespeare, 2005) I, 4. 130.
12
Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy, War and Peace (Auckland: The Floating Press, 2008), p. 879.
12
consciousness. To follow the tradition of the literary canon, as demonstrated in the selected
Dramaturgies of Nothing
Beckett’s Godot features homeless characters who struggle in the space of no object
the human desperation of the need to identify with the familiar. 13 The absurdist playwright
cruelly strips the play from a familiar setting and abandons the characters in a self-battle,
Throughout the play, Beckett works with similar descriptions based on the interaction of the
characters with each other, the few objects which they own and the space around them. The
staging of the script creates a world where ‘There’s nothing to show’15, ‘Nothing to be
done’ 16 and ‘Nothing we can do about it’. 17 The space creates a sense of doubt and is
reflected through the agitation which haunts the protagonists. Beckett’s literary practice
challenges the spectator’s engagement in the experience of the drama as the content of the
play does not focus on the image it creates, but on the doubt which it evokes. Thus, instead of
13
Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot: A Tragicomedy in Two Acts (New York: Grove Press Inc., 1954), p. 67.
14
Ibid., p. 62.
15
Ibid., p. 4.
16
Ibid., p. 5.
17
Ibid., p. 20.
13
intentionally based on a plot in which there is nothing to see and nothing that is happening is
As stated in the introduction, in the Theatre of the Absurd, the narrative technique is based on
the irrational. The plot in which nothing happens follows the absurdist technique defined by
Martin Esslin as a method of expression based on the ‘sense of the senselessness of the
human condition and the inadequacy of the rational approach by the open abandonment of
rational devices and discursive thought’.18 Thus, to implement the genre of the absurd, the
lack of symbolic representation is evident in the space as the only physical forms are the tree
representation, the protagonists cannot relate to the space. This is demonstrated in the script
through the consistent illogical dialogue between the characters. Their words communicate
18
Martin Esslin, ‘Introduction: The Absurdity of the Absurd’ in Waiting for Godot - Samuel Beckett, New
Edition, ed. Harold Bloom (New York: Infobase Publishing, 2008), pp. 25-32 (p. 29).
19
Beckett, p. 75.
14
The above extract highlights the pattern of the script. The information provided in the
dialogue of detailed descriptions contains nothing which enables the spectator to engage to
the plot of the play. As such, the play appears to lack a dramaturgical structure. However, this
is definitely not the case as Beckett’s skill has been recognized by both theatre directors and
critics and the play is an accredited masterpiece still being selected by directors and staged in
theatres. One of the current literary critics of The Guardian newspaper Nicholas Lezard
describes the absurdist playwright as an ‘author who was irreverent, scatological, yet
profound; and also completely uninterested in the conventions of literature yet able, just
through language, to sustain our interest despite nothing actually happening’. 20 Beckett strips
the drama from object and the bareness of the stage is sustained through the irrational content
of the dialogue. Hence, the text and the space complement each other to enable the
experience of no ‘thing’.
The ambiguity which is evoked by the no ‘thing’ is also present in Abramović’s The Artist is
Present. The performance features the artist waiting for her audience; she sits motionless in
front of another chair and a table in between. With a minimal number of objects and nothing
literal to grasp, the performance is dependent on the powerful physical presence of the artist
who sits in the same position for seven hours, five days a week. The artist’s body acts like an
art object in space. Her physical presence is not only part of the collection in the exhibition,
but an object of the performance. Abramović’s body is a tool for the spectator to interpret the
perceive the work through logic or form as the created image communicates nothing. With
no object and no words, Abramović lures us into a repetitive structure in which the only
20
Nicholas Lezard, ‘Waiting for Godot taught me the difference between being smart and being intellectual’,
The Guardian, 10 August 2014, Books section
<http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/aug/10/waiting-for-godot-book-that-changed-me-nicolas-
lezard> [accessed 21 November 2014]
15
movement is that created by the spectators in the space. ‘At the lowest level, there is nothing.
For a performance artist this is the most powerful tool. Then the art is truly the artist and not
about the objects or props’ she highlights in an interview. 21 Abramović manipulates the
objects and her body in a fixed image. As the viewer’s senses become accustomed to the
public and me and nothing else […] This is as immaterial as you can go’ states Abramović. 22
Thus, in the performance art piece the spectator is totally dependent on the presence of the
performer in the empty space. The spectator is invited to sit in front of the artist and through a
Theatre scholar Erika Fischer-Lichte, who has published widely across the fields of theory of
literature, art, and theatre history, contemporary theatre and semiotics and performativity,
discusses theatre’s materiality. The scholar’s discussion is relevant to the comparison of the
selected case studies because she investigates the spectator’s relationship to both theatre and
performance events. Fischer-Lichte points out the evolution of a theatre which emerged from
an elitist culture and was viewed as a textual art, to an art event which constituted of a social
nature and through the relationship between spectator and performer created a social
community. ‘Textual culture and performative culture were thought of as extreme opposites’
claims Fischer-Lichte. 23 The theatre of fixed text shifted to a new performative culture
‘where human beings are understood as embodied minds’ explains Fischer-Lichte. 24 The
21
David Ebony, ‘Marina Abramovic: An Interview’, Art in America, May 2009 < http://prod-images.exhibit-
e.com/www_skny_com/MA_2009_05_Art_in_America.pdf> [accessed on 2 November 2014]
22
Emma Brockes, ‘Performance artist Marina Abramović: 'I was ready to die'’, The Guardian, May 12, 2014,
Art and Design section < http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/may/12/marina-abramovic-ready-to-
die-serpentine-gallery-512-hours> [accessed on 21 October 2014]
23
Erika Fischer-Lichte, Theatre, Sacrifice, Ritual: Exploring Forms of Political Theatre (Oxon: Routledge,
2005), p. 22.
24
Ibid., p. 64.
16
scholar’s argument is based on the transition of theatre making; artists withdrew from the
conventional drama which told a story and sought for a reactive audience. Through the use of
the performers’ bodies, they ‘created a community between spectators and performers’. 25
This trajectory of theatre making is evident in both Waiting for Godot and The Artist is
Present. Although the Beckettian play is scripted, the text narrates a story in which nothing
happens. Similarly, the performance art piece transforms the still Abramović into an object in
the gallery. She has nothing to tell and nothing to narrate. Thus, both artists require the
spectator not simply to engage with work through the text, the action or the object, but to
Fischer-Lichte’s argument outlines the importance of the physical presence of the performer
in relation to the spectator’s experience. In the discussion of the case studies, the relationship
of the performer and spectator has already been noted as an active role in the experience of
consciousness. The scholar draws her argument on the ephemeral element of the live
performative event which happens in a space in the here and now. Simultaneous to the
discussion of the presence of the body of the performer in the theatrical space, she writes
about the role of the object in space. Her approach on the subject is that what appears to be
fixed in nature is in fact transitory. The theorist revives the materiality of the object and
highlights the organic nature it possesses in a performative context. ‘Objects can command
space and attention and qualify for the strong concept of presence’ she states. 26 In other
words, the static object is still active in the performative space. The spectator perceives the
appearance of the object and creates an interpretation based on its presence in relationship to
the other objects, the actors and the space. Therefore, the object’s function is not simply
25
Ibid.
26
Erika Fischer-Lichte, The Transformative Power of Performance: A New Aesthetics (Oxon: Routledge, 2008),
p.100.
17
attached to its physical structure but is also dependent on the environment in which it is
placed and on the individual experiencing the object. She treats the use of object in
performance has such a dynamic quality, why do Beckett and Abramović choose to develop
To answer these questions, the experiential element in Beckett’s and Abramović’s work must
be analyzed through the content of the script and the performance respectively. The
minimalist choice in both works signifies that neither one can be interpreted literally as they
do not offer an object of representation. The disappearance of the material object from the
scripted play is evident in Beckett’s Waiting for Godot. Both acts of the play are set in a
desolate stage with a single tree, however the stage is never really empty as the playwright
fills the space with the presence of the characters. He creates a space of waiting time which is
filled with the narration of the dialogue, but since what it communicates has no effect on the
staged situation, the sense of emptiness emerges even more. Like Beckett, Marina Abramović
sets her performance art piece in a gallery with the minimum required objects. Unlike the
active protagonists in Beckett’s play, the performance artist does not speak nor move. Her
still presence becomes an extension of the static objects in the gallery. If the performance’s
description is based on its visual appearance, it would claim that it is an empty performance
in which nothing is told and nothing is moved. Choosing to withdraw from the use of objects,
she commands the space with her own physical presence. Despite the different artistic
methodologies, both artists intentionally reduce the objects in space to stimulate the
spectator’s perception and create an experience which operates on visual emptiness. Since
objects are reduced, the spectator is not guided by objects of representation and the live event
becomes a perceptual experience of an empty space. What is the value of this experience?
As conscious beings, our relationship to the world is expressed through the engagement with
physical objects and events. This process involves a perceptual experience, meaning that
through our senses we are able to interpret the object or the situation, and this gives us a
sense of being in the world. Theatre and performance are models of this experience as the
spectator engages with visual presentation of text and body through sensory perception. For
example, in the presence of two actors on stage dressed up in rags, the spectator perceives
two characters who are poorly dressed. In a performance art piece which consists of a female
physical body sitting on a chair in the middle of an arts gallery, the spectator perceives the
woman in relation to the space around her. Thus, the perception of a thing or an event is a
result of the relationship between the object, which is a representation of something, to the
Phenomenologist Edmund Husserl bases his theoretical discourse on the object as the source
of the experience. As already noted in the introduction, Husserl treats objects as means of
consciousness. In other words, any object which exists can be experienced and the experience
consciousness is however also an object for a possible originarily giving consciousness; and
that we call, at least for individual objects, “perception”’ he explains. 27 Husserl’s concept of
the object transcends the material element which forms it and focuses on the experience
which originates through the process of perception. As man relates to the object, it
what do we perceive?
27
Edmund Husserl, The Essential Husserl: Basic Writings in Transcendental Phenomenology (Indiana: Indiana
University Press, 1999), p. 230.
19
It is relevant to question the intention of the artists’ works to get an insight into the
methodology and understand what is required for the creation of an experience which is not
this section, Husserl treats objects as acts of consciousness. The theorist marks a
phenomenological distinction between ‘the actual’ object and ‘the intentional’ object, for
which he uses the terms noesis and noema respectively. Noesis is ‘the “meaning” (in its
widest sense) of the judgement as experienced’ states Husserl. 28 The idea of meaning occurs
through the action of thought. Thought produces the interpretive content of an act which
forms part of the experience of the object. Applying Husserl’s argument to the experience of
watching a performance, the real content of the event is determined by the performers’
actions and the spatio-temporal dynamics of the act. Thus, Husserl’s theory explains how in
the case studies, the artists intentionally shift the attention on the experience by minimizing
the object in space. In the space of no ‘thing’, the noesis is the immediate interpretation the
spectator forms. In the live event, the spectator initially creates thoughts based on the visual
spectators, we attend the event and engage to the work visually and rationally.
However, in the discussed works, what appears cannot be understood and therefore the
spectator relies on the experience of the event. Husserl describes the noema as ‘the “meant
objective just as it is meant”’. 29 Thus, the noema is the intentional object, explained by the
phenomenologist as the object which ‘can become an Object of consciousness; its essence
involves the essential possibility […] in the form of a new cogitatio’. 30 To expand further on
28
Edmund Husserl, Ideas: General Introduction to Pure Phenomenology (Oxon: Routledge, 2013), p. 272.
29
Ibid., p. 364.
30
Edmund Husserl, Ideas Pertaining to a Pure Phenomenology and to a Phenomenological Philosophy (The
Hague: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1982), p. 78.
20
Husserl’s definition, if one looks into the experience of a theatre play, the spectator goes
beyond the appearance of the object and through sensory perception identifies the intentional
content of the object. In the case of Godot and The Artist is Present, the content of the work
methodology of the artists treats the noema as a product of the live event; meaning that the
experience of the theatre play and performance art piece is made possible through the
The noesis and noema correspond to each other just like the action of perception and the
object of perception; both are part of the experience of the live event. Husserl claims that in
the phase of perception ‘consciousness makes possible and necessary the fact that such an
“existing” and “thus determined” Object is intended in it’. 31 In other words, the perception of
the object is possible as in the sensuous experience, consciousness is present. Beckett’s and
Abramović’s works produce images of empty space through the use of minimal objects and
action. The Husserlian theory goes beyond theatre as a symbol of representation and treats
the image as an object of consciousness. Even though the artists create a space of no ‘thing’,
they still invite the audience in a space. The image of the space to be perceived is in fact the
source of the experience. With or without object, the live event presents an image which in
the sensory experience is treated as the object of the performance. Therefore, the experience
In the discussion on man’s consciousness in relation to the object, the Husserlian theory
explains that although the theatre presentation is not ‘real’, the spectator still participates in
theatre or performance, involves the mind processes of thought and imagination. According
31
Edmund Husserl, The Essential Husserl: Basic Writings in Transcendental Phenomenology (Indiana: Indiana
University Press, 1999), p. 110.
21
to the theorist, these too are objects of consciousness. In ‘the mode of the “as-if”, the
spectator’s experience of the theatrical act is enabled by consciousness which ‘occurs in and
which is a result of the engagement of the spectator with the theatre event.
I remember a lighted theater—this cannot mean that I remember having perceived the
theater. Otherwise, this would imply that I remember that I have perceived, that I perceived
the theater, and so on [. . .] I remember the lighted theater of yesterday, i.e., I effect a
“reproduction” of the perception of the theater. Accordingly, the theater hovers before me in
the representation as something actually present. 33
An act of representation is composed by the object and the action it contains. In the case of
the discussed works, the object is the presence of the props and the performers’ bodies. The
action is the activity of movement or stillness and the dialogue between the performers and
the object. The spectator of the art object is conscious of the fact that the staged object and
action is a choice made by the director to represent something. Beckett’s script is written to
be translated into a staged production, whilst Abramović stages her body in an art gallery.
Both works are set in spaces which are empty of object and are presented to an audience to be
perceiving objects and actions, in the two case studies the space of no ‘thing’ is occupied by
the intangible experience. The spectator’s relationship to the empty space creates an object of
consciousness i.e. the experience of the live event. Husserl elaborates the study of object as
consciousness through the technique of the epoché or bracketing; a practice which reduces
the study of the existence of the world around me, and shifts attention from objects in the
32
Edmund Husserl, Phantasy, Image Consciousness, and Memory (1898-1925) (Dordrecht: Springer, 2005), p.
606.
33
Edmund Husserl, On the Phenomenology of the Consciousness of Internal Time (1893–1917) (Dordrecht:
Springer Science & Business Media, 1991), p. 27.
22
world to my consciousness of objects in the world. Thus, it sets aside the knowledge which
One might argue that in the two case studies, the artists choose to minimize the object and
thus limit the information, to stimulate the spectator to connect with the experience
intuitively. Husserl explains that the ‘phenomenological experience as reflection must avoid
any interpretative constructions. Its descriptions must reflect accurately the concrete contents
of experience, precisely as they are experienced’. 34 If one examines Godot and The Artist is
experience, rather than interpret the live event. Husserl explains man’s intuitive faculty and
argues that ‘Immediate “seeing”’ is ‘not merely sensuous experiential seeing, but seeing in
the universal sense as an originally presentive consciousness of any kind’. 35 He notes the
limitations of the empirical methodology which is committed to that which the senses can
perceive, and develops a notion of experiencing which he later defines as ‘eidetic seeing
(ideation)’. 36 This term refers to intuitive process by which one experiences a thing or event.
The result of the process is eidetic knowledge: ‘The essence (Eidos) is a new sort of object.
Just as the datum of individual or experiencing intuition is an individual object, so the datum
work require an engagement based on that which no words can describe and no object can
represent.
34
Edmund Husserl, The Paris Lectures (Dordrecht: Springer Science & Business Media, 1991), p. 13.
35
Edmund Husserl, Ideas Pertaining to a Pure Phenomenology and to a Phenomenological Philosophy (The
Hague: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1982), p. 36.
36
Ibid., p. 8.
37
Ibid., p. 9.
23
Since the birth of philosophic tradition, the search for the essence has been a core subject.
The notion of essence is closely linked to the Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle who
searched for the essential nature of things. Plato’s inquiry looks into the true existence of the
object which according to the philosopher is defined through the experience. In the famous
piece The Allegory of the Cave, Plato offers an analogy of our perception of the world and
challenges the material existence with what appears ‘to be nothing else than the shadows of
the artifacts’. 38 The philosopher’s discussion on the essence illustrates that he acknowledged
the immaterial as that which precedes existence. On the other hand, the Aristotelian essence
is an intrinsic principle of the object. Aristotle seeks the essential nature of things to make
reason out of that which exists. He asserts that ‘the substance or essence [...] should exist; for
if neither essence nor matter is to be, nothing will be at all, and since this is impossible there
must something besides the concrete thing’. 39 These early philosophers recognize the
transcendental element which lies beyond idea, form and matter. They offer a comprehension
of what constitutes nature and that which connects us with the phenomenal world. In the
critique of the selected case studies, these early discussions are significant as they highlight
the value of experience over the material object, which is a common feature in both Waiting
performance art piece. In the reception of the performance event, in the spectator participates
in the work of representation through sensory perception and creates a conscious experience.
38
Plato, ‘Extract from “Book VII”, The Republic’ in Visual Culture: Histories, archaeologies and genealogies
of visual culture ed. by Joanne Morra and Marquard Smith (Oxon: Routledge, 2006), pp. 3-5 (p. 3).
39
Aristotle, The Metaphysics ([n.p.]: Roger Bishop Jones, 2012), p. 35.
24
Within the space of no ‘thing’, he overcomes the boundaries of the fixed object and
performances, Husserl’s epoché is valid as his method ‘is a praxis whose aim is to elevate
mankind through universal scientific reason according to norms of truth of all forms’
describes Husserl. 40 By opting for the intuitive perception of the object, the phenomenologist
transcends the visual representation and traces the origin of the eidos.
Beckett’s methodology too aims to create the experience of the eidos. Professor of Theatre at
the University of Reading Anna McMullan investigates the elements of representation and
collaborative process between spectator and performer. On Waiting for Godot, she states:
We could talk forever about its meaning but I actually think, like Beckett, it is about
experiencing the play. You go and take your seat in the theatre and you absorb what's
happening. The characters that are in front of you are waiting and while they are waiting we
share the same time, the same space and we watch the human beings as they interact on
stage.41
From a rational point of view, the play presents characters who are waiting for Godot in a
bare environment. Whilst they wait, they have nothing to do. Their conversation has no affect
on the situation and thus the experience seems meaningless. Beckett’s method reflects the
Cartesian epoché; through the lack of appearance of Godot. Although the spectator never sees
Godot as he never appears in the play, he is an important character in the play. His presence
40
Edmund Husserl, The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology: An Introduction to
Phenomenological Philosophy (Illinois: Northwestern University Press, 1970) p. 283.
41
Anna McMullan, 'When Beckett wrote Waiting for Godot he really didn't know a lot about theatre', The
Telegraph, 5 January 2013, Theatre section < http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/theatre-
features/9780077/When-Beckett-wrote-Waiting-for-Godot-he-really-didnt-know-a-lot-about-theatre.html>
[accessed 20 November 2014]
25
is experienced through the script as he is the subject of the dialogue. Defined by the dramatic
critic Esslin as the ‘anti-literary character’ of the absurd theatre, Godot highlights the
experience of consciousness in the play. 42 The effect of this character on the experience of
the live event will be further analyzed in the fifth chapter, but at this stage it is important to
note that Beckett does not rely on the physical presence of the character, but instead guides
the spectator to intuitively search for the eidos through the experience of no ‘thing’.
Similarly, Abramović devises an art piece in which the performing artist sits beside a few
objects of furniture in the space. Abramović’s presence triggers the spectator to create an
I give people a space to simply sit in silence and communicate with me deeply but non-
verbally. I did almost nothing, but they take this religious experience from it. Art had lost that
power, but for a while Moma was like Lourdes. 43
Whilst Beckett’s theatre is a staged representation of the script, the performance art piece is
real. The word real refers to the fact that Abramović is not acting out a role. In Waiting for
Godot , the spectator is aware that the bodies on stage are performing a role. However, in
Abramović’s work, the spectator experiences the artist through the spiritual silence which
surrounds the space. The nature of the work enables the spectator to engage with the artist in
practice as she exposes herself in the process of eidetic reduction to create an experience of
consciousness.
42
Martin Esslin, ‘The Theatre of the Absurd’, The Tulane Drama Review, 4 (1960), 3-15, in JSTOR
< http://www.jstor.org/stable/1124873 > [accessed 1 October 2014] (p.12).
43
Sean O'Hagan, ‘Interview: Marina Abramović’, The Guardian, 3 October 2010, The Observer
<http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2010/oct/03/interview-marina-abramovic-performance-artist>
[accessed 21 October 2014]
26
In the two case studies, the method of reducing the object also implies a reduction of
historical presuppositions. Both artists build a work of art which is independent from any
historical information. Beckett does not offer details about where the characters are coming
from and where they are going. They are only present, waiting for Godot. Similarly,
Abramović’s work lacks a narrative. She is an object waiting in space. Instead of generating
meaning through concrete knowledge, the artists awaken the intuitive knowledge of the
spectator to make sense of the experience. As the Husserlian phenomenology explains, in the
space where the spectator cannot relate to the action or the object, there is a process of
reduction. Thus, the aim of the work becomes the experience. In a world with no form or
representation, the focus is on the process of perception and this becomes the experience
itself. Beckett’s theatrical scenes and Abramović’s presence in the gallery activate the
sensuous intuition. They reduce the object and dismiss rationality and create works which are
As the study is supported by the course of the philosophic tradition, it is worth mentioning
philosopher Gaston Bachelard. His work brings together philosophy and science in
imagination. Bachelard rejects the Cartesian rational methodology and develops his own
theory based on the intuitive. The philosopher regarded sensory experiences and images as
obstacles in the process of attaining truth. Positioning himself against realism, he breaks
away from the coherence of constructive knowledge and favours the intuitive over the
intellect. His discourse is built on the essence which is ‘not bordered by nothingness’ but
Thus, according to his discourse, in the analysis of Beckett’s and Abramović’s work, it is best
to focus on the space which evokes an experience of intimacy, rather than on the image of no
44
Gaston Bachelard, The Poetics of Space (Boston: Beacon Press, 1958), p. 215.
27
artists’ works function through the spectator who engages in a relationship with the
performer. The intimacy is found in this exchange as the interaction is not based on the
physical elements of the event but on the transcendental experience which is a creation of
both.
space from the object and creating a work with no subject. Beckett strips the theatrical act
from décor and builds a plot on a character which never appears. Abramović exhibits herself
symbolic of an idea nor representing a place. The critical evaluation demonstrates how the
sensory faculty fails to experience the staged work as the artists do not rely on that which is
visible. Instead, the spectator is invited to engage through intuitive knowledge and interact
through a non-verbal and non-physical live experience. This form of experience cannot be
framed into an object, as it is transcendent and dependent on the moment of the here and
consciousness which is evoked in the presence of the spectator and the performers.
28
Chapter Three
A common feature in Beckett’s Waiting for Godot and Abramović’s The Artist is Present is
the presence of the physical body. Beckett writes a play to be performed by four principal
actors, whilst Abramović uses her own body in the durational performance. As the previous
chapter demonstrates, the artists do not create a work which is confined to the use of the
object in space. Instead, they employ a minimalist style and activate the spectator’s sensory
faculty to engage with the space of no ‘thing’. With no object or subject to relate to, the set
becomes a meditative space. The performers’ bodies become prominent in the empty space as
there is nothing which distracts the attention away from the physical presence.
The comparative study shows that whilst Beckett’s fictional literature is based on characters
that perform physical exaggerations of action, Abramović exhibits her motionless body.
Beckett composes a precise notation of gesture and Abramović rules the space with her
physical presence and intense gaze. Therefore, in the play the bodies are representing
dramatic characters, whilst in Abramović’s piece it is the artist who is present in space.
Despite this variation in the applied techniques, both the staged text and the live performance
involve an interaction between performer and spectator. In the live event, the performer’s
physical body, in the presence of the spectator’s body engages in a dialogue which is
independent from language or physical contact. Thus, the common factor behind the artist’s
opposing methodologies is that the exchange is actualized and experienced through the body.
To understand the function of the physical bodies of both performer and spectator, one must
investigate the phenomenology of the body and why it has a fundamental role in the theatrical
The theme of the body is evident in Beckett’s Godot. In the script, in between the short
sentenced phrases of the characters’ illogical dialogue, Beckett inserts lengthy and precise
gestural descriptions. These detailed stage directions dictate the physical score of the
performance. The following extract from the play demonstrates that Beckett’s intricate
ESTRAGON: Nothing to be done. (He proffers the remains of the carrot to Vladimir.) Like
to finish it? A terrible cry, close at hand. Estragon drops the carrot. They remain motionless,
then together make a sudden rush towards the wings. Estragon stops halfway, runs back,
picks up the carrot, stuffs it in his pocket, runs to rejoin Vladimir who is waiting for him,
stops again, runs back, picks up his boot, runs to rejoin Vladimir. Huddled together,
shoulders hunched, cringing away from the menace, they wait. 45
The detailed descriptions of the body within the script illustrates that the play is more than a
series of dialogues. Through its dramatic structure, Beckett offers the spectator information
about how the characters are feeling, through gesture and movement. Therefore, within the
From the beginning of the play, Beckett introduces the two protagonists through opposing
physical dynamics; the agitated Estragon and the assertive Vladimir. The playwright
manipulates the scenes of waiting through their physical action. Estragon holds a boot and
‘pulls at it with both hands, panting’. He gives up, exhausted, rests, tries again’. 46 Whilst
Estragon struggles, Vladimir ‘stiff strides, legs wide apart’.47 Beckett commands the direction
of the actors’ movements, postures and gestures and creates the dramatic situation through
45
Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot: A Tragicomedy in Two Acts (New York: Grove Press Inc., 1954), p. 17-
18.
46
Ibid., p. 2.
47
Ibid.
30
the actor’s body. Similar acts occur repeatedly over the duration of the play. At the end of the
second act, Estragon is still struggling ‘with his boots in vain’ 48 whilst Vladimir ‘goes
feverishly to and fro, halts finally at extreme left, broods’.49 Such sequences of stage
directions reinforce the sense of fixed time in the ongoing process of waiting. With no place
to go and nothing to do, the characters’ bursts of activity are unable to change the physical
In the appearance of the empty space, the spectator’s attention is drawn towards the action of
the body. As both space and dialogue fail to provide information or meaning, the dialogue is
intertwined into the characters’ actions in the scenes of waiting. Thus, the focus shifts on the
VLADIMIR: Listen!
VLADIMIR: Godot. 50
As already mentioned in the introduction, the Theatre of the Absurd is based on a text which
challenges meaning through a juxtaposed image. This means that the actors’ movements,
48
Ibid., p. 104.
49
Ibid., p. 105.
50
Ibid., p. 15.
31
postures and gestures go against the dialogue and thus the meaning of the lines is lost. In the
above extract the dialogue gives a sense that Godot is appearing in the scene, however the
action does not affect the situation. The characters are still waiting; stuck in their roles,
Vladimir dominantly commands and Estragon anxiously questions and follows. Theatre critic
Martin Esslin describes this form of theatre as ‘multidimensional and more than merely
language or literature’. 51 The critic explains why the absurdist theatre does not follow logic in
the course of action. He highlights that the action provides ‘contradictory and bewildering
clues’ which puts the spectator in a state of tension and uncertainty. ‘instead of being in
suspense as to what will happen next, the spectators are, in the Theatre of the Absurd, put into
Whilst providing an analysis of the absurdist theatre, Esslin’s critique offers contemplation
originates from written text in the form of a script, its power lies in its non-literary element.
The evidence of this lies in the continuous descriptions of body gesture and physical action.
Since the dialogue does not affect progression in the play, the text of recurring physical
movement creates a situation of absurdity. The actions of the body in relation to the
conversation between the protagonists is irrational and ‘eventually the spectators are brought
face to face with the irrational side of their existence’ states Esslin. 53
The irrational element is reflected in the habitual mannerisms which the characters own. In
the scenes of waiting, the protagonists display habits of expression. As they have nothing to
do or talk about, the state of uncertainty comes across through the medium of the body. The
51
Martin Esslin, ‘The Theatre of the Absurd’, The Tulane Drama Review, 4 (1960), 3-15, in JSTOR
< http://www.jstor.org/stable/1124873 > [accessed 1 October 2014] (p.13).
52
Ibid.
53
Ibid., p. 5.
32
characters’ roles are based on repetitive action and dialogue. They depend on each other to
pass time and thus engage in actions of repetition which become intrinsic to their nature.
VLADIMIR: You’re right. (Pause.) Let’s just do the tree, for the balance.
ESTRAGON: The tree?
Vladimir does the tree, staggering about on one leg.
VLADIMIR: (stopping) Your turn.
Estragon does the tree, staggers. 54
Beckett’s critical essay Proust (1930) gives us an insight into why the playwright’s writing
technique includes what he calls the ‘creature of habit’. 55 Beckett explains that habit
functions as a tool of sensuous perception as it ‘turns aside from the object that cannot be
made to correspond with one or other of his intellectual prejudices’. 56 Therefore, over the
course of the play, the habitual behavior enables the spectator to withdraw from the visual
The repetitive aspect of the characters’ relationship is manifested through the verbal and
physical actions. Beckett’s protagonists are unable to escape the vicious loop of habitual
action. ‘We always find something, eh Didi, to give us the impression we exist?’ says
54
Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot: A Tragicomedy in Two Acts (New York: Grove Press Inc., 1954), p. 86-
87.
55
Samuel Beckett, Proust (New York: Grove Press Inc., 1931), p. 11.
56
Ibid., p. 12
33
Estragon.57 His assertion confirms the symbiotic relationship between the two characters;
based on their repetitive physical action, it distracts them from the existential turmoil which
they are experiencing. Since the text is void of intellectual discussion, the actors’ actions and
gestures are crucial for the interpretation of the performance. Through each other they are
able to perceive their own relationship to the material world, and simultaneously this
The previous chapter discussed that in Beckett’s drama the spectator is guided to actively
engage to the work through sensory perception to experience consciousness. The spectator’s
experience is a result of the staged relationship of the characters with each other and the
world. As highlighted, Beckett’s characters depend on each other to perform the repetitive
action. Hence, the experience of the characters is a result of the recurring action which forms
their relationship. In this process, ‘their awareness of their own self continues relentlessly’
argues the critic Martin Esslin. 58 Esslin investigates how it is the relationship between the
material body and the material world that enables the experience of consciousness. He states
nonexisting and is therefore, only conceivable as unlimited, without end’. 59 Therefore, the
relationship of the perceiver with his body and its relationship to the world and others create
the experience of consciousness. Esslin notes that in the plot it is the eternal recurrence that
affects the characters experience of consciousness. The extract below demonstrates how the
57
Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot: A Tragicomedy in Two Acts (New York: Grove Press Inc., 1954), p. 77.
58
Martin Esslin, Samuel Beckett: A Collection of Critical Essays (New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc, 1965), p. 7.
59
Ibid.
34
VLADIMIR: Hold that. Estragon takes Vladimir’s hat. Vladimir adjusts Lucky’s hat on his
head. Estragon puts on Vladimir’s hat in place of his own which he hands to Vladimir.
Vladimir takes Estragon’s hat. Estragon adjusts Vladimir’s hat on his head. Vladimir puts on
Estragon’s hat in place of Lucky’s which he hands to Estragon.60
unites the characters’ bodies. The above notation is an example of how the actions of one
character depend on the presence of the other. Disoriented in a space with no context, the
characters console each other. Since they depend on each other, they are also dependent on
The mutual dependency is evident in both character pairs of the play. Pozzo and Lucky
former is blind and the latter is dumb. On the contrary, in the relationship between Vladimir
and Estragon, neither one is dominant. Didi plays with his hat and Gogo is in a continuous
struggle trying to take off his boots. The former is philosophical and the latter is emotional.
Whilst the ritualistic waiting ties them together, it also unfolds their opposing character traits.
The analysis of the script demonstrates that duality is characteristic in the theme of the body.
The duality is reflected through the two couples who are tied in a subject-object relation in
In the spectacle of theatre, the body is treated like text, meaning that the spectator attempts to
make meaning out of the presented visual images. Since Beckett’s play of no ‘thing’ is
experience of the drama. In the play, the tool of the body is operated through a character;
hence the appearance of the actor represents a specific role through the expression of his
physical body. As this analysis highlights Beckett’s direction of gesture and movement, it is
60
Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot: A Tragicomedy in Two Acts (New York: Grove Press Inc., 1954), p. 80.
35
As the title suggests, the body is the focus of Marina Abramović’s exhibition The Artist is
Present. In the MoMA galleries, the artist presents a selection of her live performances, re-
performed by other people and a new original work performed by Abramović. In all the
performances, the body is used as a primary medium and means of visual expression, during
which the viewers encounter a body doing something in the here and now. Thus, in the live
The emergence of the artist’s body in the genre of performance art initiated in the 1960s.
During this period, artists created a radical postmodernist movement in reaction towards the
performance art, defines the genre as the type of art in which ‘the live presence of the artist,
and the focus on the artist’s body, became central to notions of ‘the real’’. 61 The critic notes
that by the early seventies, artists were choosing to work with the body as material to explore
the experience of time and space. This was reflected in ‘conceptual art’s rejection of
traditional materials of canvas, brush or chisel, with performers turning to their own bodies as
art material’ explains Goldberg. 62 The body as a materialized art concept can be traced in
Between 1973 and 1974, Abramović produces a series of five ‘Rhythm’ works in which she
tests her physical endurance and mental limits. She uses the body as an object in space and
61
RoseLee Goldberg, Performance Art: From Futurism to the Present (London: Thames & Hudson, 2011), p. 9.
62
Ibid., p.152
36
translates concepts into live appearances. Therefore, the viewer can gain insight into the
experience through her physical demonstration. The last performance in the series was
Rhythm 0 (1974), in which the artist offers her body to the audience together with ’72 objects
on the table that one can use on me as desired’. 63 Using her body as material and pushing the
boundaries of her physical and mental limitations, the artist claims ‘I am the object’. 64
Documentation of the interactive event portrays Abramović being threatened physically and
describes the abuse she receives from the audience as she tests ‘how far you can push the
energy of the human body’. 65 After six hours, the risk-taking performance becomes too
dangerous as the audience starts to use the objects like weapons on Abramović’s body. ‘I start
moving, I start being myself because I was there like a puppet just for them’ states the
artist. 66
Following such intense experiences, The Artist is Present features once again the artist in
space, yet this time there is no object. Abramović exhibits her body; like an object, she sits in
stillness at the centre of the atrium. The artist describes, ‘I gazed into the eyes of many people
[…] I give people a space to simply sit in silence and communicate with me deeply but non-
verbally. I did almost nothing’. 67 Through her presence, the artist is an instrument of the
aesthetic experience. The empty chair in front of Abramović is an invitation to the witness to
participate in the interactive piece. A visitor of the performance describes the experience of
63
Klaus Peter Biesenbach, Marina Abramović: The Artist is Present (New York:The Museum of Modern Art,
2010), p. 74.
64
Ibid.
65
Joanie Nguyen, Marina Abramovic on Rhythm 0, online video recording, YouTube, 16 March 2015 <
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtKytXEfbXs> [accessed 19 April 2015]
66
Ibid.
67
Sean O'Hagan, ‘Interview: Marina Abramović’, The Guardian, 3 October 2010, The Observer
<http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2010/oct/03/interview-marina-abramovic-performance-artist>
[accessed 21 October 2014]
37
being part of the installation. ‘I was focusing so hard I was exhausted by the end of it. Your
body is working so hard from being still or trying to be still’. 68 The description of the
experience confirms that the artist’s presence skillfully triggers the participant to be equally
physically and mentally engaged in the process. Therefore, unlike in the previous works in
which the artist was simply an object and material of the performance, The Artist is Present
frames the exchange which occurs between the two physical bodies. The conceptual work
concentrates on Abramović’s body and over time, the witness experiences the body as an
profound analysis of the body in relation to other bodies and the world. Philosopher Edmund
Husserl writes that the body (Körper) is ‘a mere material thing’; it is a spatial object with a
specific physical structure. 69 Focusing on bodily perception, he argues that the body is
fundamentally ‘a bearer of sensations [...] a thing ‘inserted’ between the rest of the material
world and the ‘subjective’ sphere’. 70 In other words, the body is an object through which the
subject appears in the world. Through movement, the subject’s consciousness perceives the
moving object and forms an experience. Therefore, consciousness functions through the
subject’s body which is able to perceive and interpret the world through sensations.
68
Julia Kaganskiy, ‘Visitor Viewpoint: Marina Abramović’, The Museum of Modern Art, 29 March 2010,
Viewpoints section <http://www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/2010/03/29/visitor-viewpoint-marina-
abramovic>[accessed 5 November 2014]
69
Edmund Husserl, The Essential Husserl: Basic Writings in Transcendental Phenomenology (Indiana: Indiana
University Press, 1999), p. 180.
70
Ibid., p. 185.
38
In the discussed performances, Husserl’s body (Körper) is the body of the performer. In
Beckett’s scripted play, the physicality of the actors enables the audience to have an
experience of the spatial environment of the play. If the stage was just bare, the spectator
would perceive an empty space; therefore, it is through the physical presence of the
characters, that the spectator can interpret the scene. In the famous essay Samuel Beckett,
or Presence on the Stage (1965), literary critic Alain Robbe-Grillet writes that the two
characters seem to appear on stage without a role to play. The few rags and torn shoes which
dress the characters together with their actions and text provide details which enable the
audience to engage with the narrative. ‘The dramatic character is on stage, that is his primary
quality: he is there’ argues the critic. 71 Therefore, it is through their bodies that the spectator
In the performance of no narrative, Abramović has no character, yet the spectator is still able
to have an experience. The artist’s physical presence transforms the art gallery into a
performance space. Peggy Phelan is a current performance art critic who published thorough
research on the concept of presence in performance. She forms a critique on the live
performance event, the experience it produces and the meanings it provides. Basing her
argument on the function of the body, she claims that ‘Identity is perceptible only through a
relation to an other’. 72 Her argument suggests that the meaning of the body changes
In both the theatrical performance and the live performance event, the presence of the body is
a reference for the spectator. The analysis demonstrates that both Beckett and Abramović
explored the body not simply as an instrument which communicates through the character or
71
Alain Robbe-Grillet, For a New Novel: Essays on Fiction (Illinois: Northwestern University Press, 1963), p.
111.
72
Peggy Phelan, Unmarked: The Politics of Performance (London: Routledge, 1993), p. 13.
39
role it plays. Out of the staged human body, the artists create an experience in which the
spectator witnesses the object that forms part of his being. To elaborate further on this
experience, it is worth examining Husserl’s idea of the body. The philosopher makes a clear
division between the physical body (Körper) and the living body (Leib). ‘Körper means a
body in the geometric or physical sense; Leib refers to the body of a person or animal’
explains the theorist.73 Whilst he uses the term Körper to identify the body as an object,
Husserl also notes that what we perceive as a body image is also a living body which is aware
of its own existence. The living body is ‘perceptually bound to a [general] situation in which
physical objects appear’ says Husserl. 74 Therefore, it is via the living body that the subject’s
consciousness can relate to other physical bodies. To summarize, in the performances, whilst
the appearance of the physical body defines the space, the living body is the source which
As already discussed in the second chapter, both Beckett and Abramović encourage the
spectator to engage to the work not simply intellectually, but also through intuitive
knowledge in the live experience. Beckett’s directions of the actor’s body in the script breaks
the boundaries between literature and reality. It is through the physicality of the actors that
the spectator understands that and in the situation of waiting, the characters struggle with the
environment around them. In a review on the staged Waiting for Godot directed by Ron OJ
Parson in Chicago’s Court Theatre, critic Catey Sullivan writes that ‘director Parson demands
of the audience: complete surrender’ through the ‘alternately clownish and mordant delivery’
73
Edmund Husserl, The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology: An Introduction to
Phenomenological Philosophy (Illinois: Northwestern University Press, 1970), p. 50.
74
Ibid., p. 107.
40
of the actors’.75 The spectator becomes a witness of the anxiety and is absorbed into the
her audience. The artist manages this simply through her gaze. Intrigued by the silent moment
of interaction, Abramović explains that scientists have proved that ‘there is an incredible
amount of activity that happens when you take the time to really look at another human being
without any verbal exchange’. 76 Therefore, through the interaction of the physical bodies, the
The analysis demonstrates that the Cartesian dualist approach serves to explain the function
of the physical body in the live experience. Husserl transforms the notion of the physical
structure of the body from object into a ‘privileged object in the surrounding world’. 77 Thus,
the early phenomenological account refers to the body which functions like an object and to
the body which is able to form relationships and experience the world. In the studied
performances, the dual nature of the body that is outlined by Husserl is evident through the
physical appearance of the body in space and the artistic methods of staging the body. The
research shows that with the body as a vehicle of performance, both Beckett’s drama and
Abramović’s concept create an experiential live event. Yet, what is the value of the
immaterial experience which is created from the spectator’s relationship to the physical
75
Catey Sullivan, ‘Waiting for Godot’, Theatre Mania, 4 February 2015, Reviews section
<http://www.theatermania.com/chicago-theater/reviews/waiting-for-godot-court-theatre-review_71584.html
[accessed 2 April 2015]
76
Stephanie Spiro, ‘An Interview with Marina Abramović: Art, Science and the Marina Abramović Institute’,
Huffington Post, 23 October 2013, Arts &Culture section, <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stephanie-spiro/an-
interview-with-marina-_b_3792175.html>[accessed 13 December 2014]
77
Edmund Husserl, The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology: An Introduction to
Phenomenological Philosophy (Illinois: Northwestern University Press, 1970), p. 323.
41
Expanding further on the phenomenological approach to the body, one finds that Maurice
Merlau Ponty’s examination of Husserl’s theory is relevant to the study of the body in
performance. Husserl defines the living-body as ‘an organ of perception’; the medium by
which one experiences the surrounding world. 78 Merleau-Ponty too was interested in the
perceptual ability of the body to create experiences based on the relationship with its
between the living body and the object, Merleau-Ponty discusses the reciprocal relationship
in which both the body and the world are objects and subjects of the experience. He suggests
the possibility of ‘co-functioning’ 79, as we form part of a common world and thus ‘function
as one unique body’. 80 Thus, in the process of perception, the body is a subject experiencing
the world as an object. At the same time, the world is a subject of the objective body. ‘Our
own body is in the world as the heart is in the organism; it keeps the visible spectacle
constantly alive, it breathes life into it and sustains it inwardly, and with it forms a system’. 81
In his book The Visible and the Invisible (1968), Maurice Merleau-Ponty includes a whole
chapter titled ‘The Intertwining- The Chiasm’. In this chapter, he provides an enquiry of the
body’s relation to the world and explains that we come to know the world through an
78
Edmund Husserl, The Essential Husserl: Basic Writings in Transcendental Phenomenology (Indiana: Indiana
University Press, 1999), p. 227.
79
Maurice Merleau-Ponty, The Visible and the Invisible: Followed by Working Notes (Evanston: NorthWestern
University Press, 1968), p. 215.
80
Ibid.
81
Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology of Perception (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd., 1962), p.
235.
42
transcending its physical structure and become part of the world. In this sense, the world is
made up of both the perceiver and the perceived. According to Merleau-Ponty, this sense of
unity occurs through the flesh which is ‘not matter, is not mind, is not substance […] The
flesh is in this sense an “element” of Being’. 82 His analysis alters the traditional sense of the
body as he invites us to inhabit the body differently, and not simply through the physical
sense. The ability to perceive unites the perceiver and the perceived, hence, the subject and
the object, into one. Merleau-Ponty defines the experience formed when the two bodies come
together as the chiasm; ‘the metamorphosis of the one experience into the other’. 83 Therefore,
This is meaningful to the study of the performances as Beckett’s dramatic play and
Abramović’s performance are built on situations which seek a physical engagement from
both performer and spectator. The analysis of Godot’s script shows that Beckett created
character roles which in the live theatrical event are expressed by actors. Therefore, the actors
embody a role and a character to deliver the narrative of the text. In 2008, the actor Randy
Harrison represented Lucky in the staging of Waiting for Godot by The Berkshire Theatre
Festival. He shares his experience in an interview and says that process of rehearsing for the
play ‘is like living in a different world as a group [...] to inhabit this bizarre and fascinating
place together’. 84 The actor describes it as an organic process in which ‘line readings then
grow out of the situations [...] You follow the script, and the audience will project what is a
82
Maurice Merleau-Ponty, The Visible and the Invisible: Followed by Working Notes (Evanston: NorthWestern
University Press, 1968), p. 139.
83
Ibid., p. 148.
84
Larry Murray, ‘INTERVIEW: Talking with Randy Harrison about Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot”’,
Berkshire on Stage and Screen’, 16 March 2015, Reviews section
<http://berkshireonstage.com/2015/03/16/interview-talking-with-randy-harrison-about-samuel-becketts-waiting-
for-godot/> [accessed 1 April 2014]
43
personal meaning for them’. 85 Therefore, through presence, physicality and skill, the actor
embodies Beckett’s text and in the relationship with the spectator, as outlined by Merleau-
Whilst Beckett directs through his detailed scripted instructions in the script, Abramović’s
work has no written text. The concept which originates from her mind is executed through
her body. Abramović uses the body not simply as a sign for human emotions, but as a
structural material which can be used for whatever it needs to represent. In the exhibition The
Artist is Present, she restages her past performance pieces by employing other artists to be
part of her work. The performers replace Abramović’s body as they take over her past roles.
As the artist passes on her work to other performers, she acknowledges that this implies that
her work becomes dependent on the physical and mental state of the performer, and thus it is
likely to differ in some respects from her original work. Deborah Wing-Sproul is a performer
I can’t be her body. I feel like when I enter these works I’m bringing all of whom I am. I feel
that having witnessed her performing multiple times was helpful to me, a guide…I needed to
experience her energy…She had variation in her gaze, breath, a range of body positions. It
was extremely powerful. 86
Whilst Beckett’s script clearly dictates what the actors have to do, Abramović’s motionless
appearance replaces the use of text. Abramović explains that the performance artist has to
understand that there is ‘a structure of the performance that you can see and then you make
85
Ibid.
86
Carrie Stern, ‘The artist is present in the bodies of any: Reperformng Marina Abramović’, Agôn, 2013, La
Reprise < http://agon.ens-lyon.fr/index.php?id=2739> [accessed 12 April 2015]
44
your own interpretation and have your own experience’. 87 Therefore, the body acts as a blank
page to create a space for the exchange between herself and the spectator.
In both case studies, the performing bodies are present in space to construct images.
performance, discusses the function of the performer’s body through the concept of
embodiment. She explains that ‘embodiment creates the possibility for the body to function
as the object, subject, material, and source or symbolic construction, as well as the product of
cultural inscriptions’. 88 Through their physical presence, the actors and performers are able to
embody roles and concepts to become a source of meaning and experience. Thus, in the live
event, it is through embodiment that the spectator can experience. Art theorist and critic
Amelia Jones traces through performance history and studies live art practices, recognizing a
shift in the use of body between the genres. She asserts that body art and performance art are
through the formal structure of the work alone’. 89 Whilst in theatre, the actor embodies the
role of a dramatic character and becomes body of representation, in performance art the body
is treated simply as presence. Hence, in the discussed works, textual meaning is delivered by
the actors who present character roles on stage and performance artists embody concepts.
Abramović explains what it means to be a performance artist, thus outlining the difference
87
Ibid.
88
Erika Fischer-Lichte, The Transformative Power of Performance: A New Aesthetics (Oxon: Routledge, 2008),
p. 89.
89
Amelia Jones, Body Art/performing the Subject (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1998), p. 21.
45
To be a performance artist, you have to hate theatre […] Theatre is fake […] The knife is not
real, the blood is ketchup, and the emotions are not real. Performance is just the opposite: the
knife is real, the blood is real, and the emotions are real. 90
Therefore, the performance artist embodies conceptual art and creates a visual expression out
of the human experience. Although Abramović asserts that performance is real, the presence
of the body in a performative event immediately implies that the body is representing
something or someone. Cultural scholar and art critic Philip Auslander argues that the
postmodernist performing body is ‘always both a vehicle for representation and, simply,
itself’. 91 Abramović’s body in The Artist is Present presents the real body of the artist,
however, as suggested by Auslander, since the body is also a performing body, this means
that its presence is also constructed. This is verified by the observations of one of the
reperformers of Abramović’s work on the experience, who notes that the artist ‘had variation
To understand better this shift in performance practice, it is significant to once again look into
Fischer-Lichte’s study which asserts that theatre practitioners challenge the concept of the
semiotics and phenomenology and divides the body in two: the semiotic body and the
phenomenal body. Whilst the semiotic body is a ‘representation of a dramatic figure’, the
90
O'Hagan.
91
Philip Auslander, From Acting to Performance: Essays in Modernism and Postmodernism (London:
Routledge, 1997), p. 90.
92
Stern.
93
Erika Fischer-Lichte, The Transformative Power of Performance: A New Aesthetics (Oxon: Routledge, 2008),
p. 90.
46
phenomenal body is ‘an energetic body’. 94 She explains that in theatre, the material existence
of the body is used as a sign. On the other hand, in performance, embodiment occurs through
the body of the performer and creates energy which is central to the experience. Similarly,
Abramović explains that performance art practice is ‘all about energy which is invisible […]
you elevate your consciousness, and that really affects the audience’. 95 In the piece,
Abramović’s body is an art object that is subject to the interpretation of the viewer’s which is
formed by thoughts, experience and knowledge in relation to the world and others. In the live
performance, the artist is an image and a concept; passive through stillness and active in her
gaze, she is a physical body, an exhibited artwork and a human being who is intimately
engaged in a shared experience with her audience. To analyze further the function of the
Erika Fischer-Lichte notes that the presence of the live body in performance has the ‘ability
Therefore, the concept of presence means that the performer’s body which appears is
perceived through a state of presence. ‘the spectator experiences the performer and himself as
As highlighted earlier in this chapter, the process of intertwining unites that which appears
separate; through the senses the perceiver connects with the object to create the experience.
94
Erika Fischer-Lichte, ‘Appearing as embodied mind – defining a weak, a strong and a radical concept of
presence’ in Archaeologies of Presence: Art, Performance and the Persistence of Being ed. by Gabriella
Giannachi, Nick Kaye, Michael Shanks (Oxon: Routledge, 2012), pp. 103-118 (p. 112).
95
Biesenbach, p. 211.
96
Erika Fischer-Lichte, The Transformative Power of Performance: A New Aesthetics (Oxon: Routledge, 2008),
p. 98.
97
Ibid., p. 99.
47
perceiver becomes aware of his senses, he is open to sense the other. In this process, the
experience is based on ‘truth – which prejudges nothing [...] there is presence, that
“something” is there, and that “someone” is there’ states the phenomenologist. 98 In The Artist
is Present, both performer and spectator are conscious of the presence of their own body and
the body of the other. Describing the experience, Abramović says ‘I gazed into the eyes of
many people who were carrying such pain inside that I could immediately see it and feel it
[…] I become a mirror for them of their own emotions’. 99 The artist’s words demonstrate that
the experience is not solely on the presence of the physical bodies but also on the presence of
consciousness.
Theorist of performance studies Peggy Phelan discusses the alternative approaches to theatre
in light of the comparative analysis between the ‘representation’ and the ‘real’. She suggests
that performance avoids representation by creating the real. ‘The real inhabits the space that
representation cannot reproduce – and in this failure theatre relies on repetition and mimesis
to produce substitutes for the real’ states Phelan. 100As previously examined, Beckett’s script
is full of repetitive dialogue and action. The staging of Beckett’s theatrical script means that
the text becomes embodied expression. On the other hand, Abramović’s motionless body in
the live event becomes an object in space – ‘body as a machine’ says the artist, as she avoids
theatrical representation. 101 ‘but there is something more Buddhist now about the
performances’ she highlights. 102 The artist’s preparation towards the performance involves
98
Maurice Merleau-Ponty, The Visible and the Invisible: Followed by Working Notes (Evanston: NorthWestern
University Press, 1968), p. 160.
99
O'Hagan.
100
Peggy Phelan, Unmarked: The Politics of Performance (London: Routledge, 1993), p. 126.
101
O'Hagan
102
Ibid.
48
training and discipline which is inspired from Eastern philosophy of attaining emptiness; ‘the
artist should be empty and vulnerable, available and accessible’ remarks Abramović. 103 The
purpose of this training is for the performer to reach a state which projects nothing, but
simply to be.
Although Abramović avoids symbolic representation, Phelan argues that her ‘art is
implicated the real through the presence of living bodies. In performance art spectatorship
there is an element of consumption […] the gazing spectator must try to take everything in’
asserts the critic. 105 Abramović engages the audience in a process which Phelan describes as
‘an experiment in intersubjectivity’. 106 What happens within the intersubjective experience is
the same experience marked out in Merleau-Ponty’s phenomonelogical theory on the flesh.
Thus, both the art theorist and the phenomenologist clarify how Abramović’s performance is
an experience of presence that functions through two bodies who share one moment. The
transitory element of the art genre is manifested through the live interaction between the artist
The evaluation of Beckett’s script and Abramović’s unscripted performance demonstrate how
the body in performance can be used as a tool of representation or can serve to create an
of the flesh offers a clear explanation onto why both works depend on the physical bodies of
103
David Ebony, ‘Marina Abramovic: An Interview’, Art in America, May 2009 < http://prod-images.exhibit-
e.com/www_skny_com/MA_2009_05_Art_in_America.pdf> [accessed on 2 November 2014]
104
Peggy Phelan, ‘Marina Abramović: Witnessing Shadows’, Theatre Journal, Vol. 56, No. 4 (2004), 569-577,
in JSTOR < http://www.jstor.org/stable/25069529> [accessed 23 October 2014]
(p.574)
105
Phelan. Unmarked: The Politics of Performance (London: Routledge, 1993) p.148
106
Ibid.
49
performer and spectator. Through the performer’s body in the space and the spectator’s
conscious enagagement, the performance becomes a creation of both artist and audience.
50
Chapter Four
To interpret Beckett’s Waiting for Godot and Abramović’s The Artist is Present, it is
necessary to investigate how theatrical and performance space is created. Beckett’s script
combines dialogue and stage directions to create a fictional world for a possible theatre
production. The play’s text is based on conversations between the characters and includes
descriptions of action and gesture, intended for staged bodies in a designed set. The play is
divided into two acts representing two days. On the other hand, Abramović’s performance art
piece does not follow a narrative, but a concept which she projects through the presence of
her body in a contemporary art gallery. As part of the exhibition which showcases the origins
of Abramović’s work, the performance artist invites the spectator into the installed setting of
an art piece to sit and in silence make eye contact. Although the content, genre and style of
the two case studies are different, both Beckett and Abramović use the relationship between
space and time to create an environment that evokes an experience in the presence of
performer and spectator. This chapter will thus argue the function of the empty space and
how time in the live event affects the nature of the experience.
Before examining the artistic methodologies, it is important to study the relationship between
space and time through a phenomenological perspective as the spectator interprets the live
philosophical reflection on the object, it is evident that the theorist treats the object as an
entity which belongs to a space and time. He writes that ‘All individual objects have a
temporal duration and position; they are extended with an essential content over the original
continuum of time’. 107 Husserl’s phenomenological theory is relevant to the study of theatre
107
Edmund Husserl and Ludwig Landgrebe, Experience and Judgment (Illinois: Northwestern University Press,
1973), p. 184.
51
and performance practice because like the object, the synthesis of the live event can only be
determined through the duration of a situation in a space. In Godot, the duration of the two
act play portrays the effect of the relationship of space and time as the actors are stuck in the
same place in what seems to be an eternal waiting. The interplay of these factors controls the
protagonists’ behaviour and engages the audience in the experience of waiting. Abramović,
together with the other performers, sustains the same action over the duration of the
exhibition. In the gallery space which culturally is used to present objects of art, the
performance pieces break the illusion of a fixed sense of time by exhibiting the ephemeral
effect through their body. The above analysis demonstrates that both the drama and the
performance have no beginning and no end; they start and end in the same way as nothing
happens in between. Since the live event is perceived within the spatial coordinates and can
only exist in time, the visual representation in Beckett’s theatre and the body in Abramović’s
Referring one again to Husserl’s discourse, the theorist highlights the unity between the
object and space and time. He insists that ‘there can exist only one Objective world, only one
Objective time, only one Objective space, only one Objective Nature’. 108 This explains why
the visual representation in Beckett’s play appears to be paused in time. Since there is no
change in the protagonists’ actions, there is no apparent change in space and time, and vice
versa. Similarly, as the ‘things’ in Abramović’s exhibition do not change the nature of their
action, space and time seem to be static. Conversely, as nothing changes in space or time, the
performing bodies remain in the same pose doing the same action. Hence, what Husserl refers
to as ‘one’, in the ‘Objective’ experience of the theatre and performance event is that which
108
Edmund Husserl, Cartesian Meditations: An Introduction to Phenomenology (Dordrecht: Springer Science &
Business Media, 1960), p. 140.
52
unfolds through the unity between the performing body in space and time. Therefore, the
As discussed in Chapter three, Beckett’s theatrical scenes and Abramović’s exhibition create
an experience through the presence of the performers’ bodies. Thus, the object in both live
events is a living body. This means that even though in the performances the body’s
relationship to space and time does not change, it remains a fact that the body is alive. In fact
Husserl explains that all objects are temporal objects as ‘they belong to a unique order of
becoming and can be represented only in the reproduction of this order in the representation
of becoming that is constitutive of time’. 109 The dependence of the object on time is reflected
in Beckett’s play as Pozzo recognises that they are victims of ‘accursed time [...] one day we
shall die, the same day the same second’. 110 Therefore, although the waiting creates the
sensation that time has stopped, the characters also experience the progress of time through
the physical discomfort of their bodies and their mental struggle in the awareness of the
suffering. Abramović describes that ‘when people come into that zone they actually forget
about the time’, however the performing bodies are exposed to the time factor as they are
witnessed enduring physical and mental extremities in public. 111 The artist explains that the
pieces exhibit ‘the life force inside of you’ as through time, the vulnerable body is exposed.
112
No matter how many times she repeats the performance, Abramović admits that ‘I have to
109
Edmund Husserl and Ludwig Landgrebe, Experience and Judgment (Illinois: Northwestern University Press,
1973), p. 185.
110
Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot: A Tragicomedy in Two Acts (New York: Grove Press Inc., 1954), p. 103.
111
Daniela Stigh, ‘Marina Abramović: The Artist Speaks’, MoMA Inside/Out, 3 June 2010
<http://www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/2010/06/03/marina-abramovic-the-artist-speaks> [accessed 17
November 2014}
112
Helen Walters, Marina Abramović on Humor, Vulnerability and Failure, online video recording, TED, 16
March 2015 <http://ideas.ted.com/marina-abramovic-on-humor-vulnerability-and-failure/> [accessed 28 April
2015]
53
deal with it every day. I never get used to performing’. 113 Therefore, both case studies are
based on the passing time but in one space, they manage to capture the experience of the
present moment.
that his definition of time is ‘dependent on the convention that one can represent the series of
nows by points on a line’. 114 In the case of the discussed works, although the theatre and
performance are events that exist in a specific space at a particular point in time, the
experience they create seems to be independent of the two factors. Where and when the event
happens does not have a crucial effect on the experience; in the live event, what matters is the
unity of the performing body in present time. In the play, the characters have nowhere to go
and all they seek is to know when Godot is coming. As Godot never appears, the play
revolves around the protagonists’ waiting in present time. Abramović’s performance art is
also about the present moment as she creates an event in which the spectator sees living
The two case studies produce the experience that is irreducible to space and time. Merleau-
Ponty explains this sensation through a time chiasm in which past and future overlap into ‘a
single movement’ in which the perceiver is aware of himself in time. 115 Since I am ‘time
which is aware of itself’ 116, therefore ‘I am myself time’. 117 The phenomenologist explains
that being aware of time means that one goes beyond the perception of past or future. Using
the concept of the flesh that is explained in the third chapter, he suggests that ‘flesh is in this
113
Ibid.
114
Maurice Merleau-Ponty, The Visible and the Invisible: Followed by Working Notes (Evanston: NorthWestern
University Press, 1968), p. 195.
115
Maurice Merleau-Ponty. Phenomenology of Perception (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd., 1962), p.
487.
116
Ibid., p. 495.
117
Ibid., p. 489.
54
sense an “element” of Being [...] adherent to location and to the now’. 118 Merleau-Ponty’s
reflection is relevant to this study as in both works the object is the actor or the performer;
thus, a human being who through the body is able to perceive the nature of his consciousness
in relation to space and time. Thus, the spectator undergoes the experience of his own Being,
as his flesh unites with the image in a space and time. For this reason, Merleau-Ponty calls
the notion of time ‘a dimension of our being’. 119 In the live event, the moment of unity in
which the spectator perceives the experience and simultaneously is conscious of his own
Being having this experience, creates the sensation of the present moment.
A Space of Meaning
The phenomenological discourse is relevant to the research as it explains how the artists stage
the dichotomy of time’s movement and stillness in space. The space that frames the
performance event not only captures the sensation of time; it also gains its meaning through
the objects of performance and the audience within a set of boundaries. As outlined in the
second chapter, in the two case studies the presence of no ‘thing’ makes evident the empty
space and in the live event, the audience relates to the setting of the space.
contexts. In the book The Production of Space (1991), philosopher and sociologist Henri
Lefebvre notes that the nature of the space varies according to the inter-relationships that
theatre and performance space produce a place in which relationships between living bodies
form. ‘(Social) space is a (social) product’ he states, meaning that physical space cannot be
118
Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Ted Toadvine, The Merleau-Ponty Reader (Illinois: Northwestern University
Press, 2007), p. 400.
119
Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology of Perception (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd., 1962), p.
483.
55
separated from its social relations. 120 In theatre and performance, the physical space is an
environment in which the performing body and the spectator meet. This encounter which is
subject to space and time determines the theatrical and performative experience. ‘Space is
social morphology: it is to lived experience what form itself is to the organism’ writes
Lefebvre. 121 What the sociologist means is that we experience space as a representation of
something. Even the performance space comes with a set of rules, function and meaning,
hence, the theatrical or performative content is interpreted through its relations with its
surroundings. If every space comes with its own physical representation and social meaning,
theatre and performance cannot avoid becoming a form of cultural text. Whether or not the
artistic activity is based on a literary text, through the space it inhabits it becomes an activity
that provides a human experience in a cultural and social context. What spatial choices does
Beckett make in the structure of the literary text and how does Abramović use space to
Waiting for Godot is a literary text full of action and direction created to function in a theatre
setting. The term theatre originates from ‘theatron’, a Greek word used to describe a place for
viewing. 122 Since the early stages of dramatic performance, theatre is used to refer to the
social practice of performance in which performers gather in an empty space to act, sing and
dance. Over the course of the theatre tradition, theatre space changed from a Greek
institutionalization of theatricality, led to urban and rural spaces converted into theatrical
120
Henri Lefebvre, The Production of Space (Oxford: Blackwell, 1991), p. 26.
121
Ibid., p. 95.
122
Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictonary, online dictionary, (2001-2015)
<http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=theater> [accessed 12 May 2015]
56
spaces. The physical construction and contextual meaning of the theatre spaces might be
different, yet what is common to all forms of spaces is the empty space. Theatre director
Peter Brook describes how any place can become a space of theatre. ‘I can take an empty
space and call it bare scene. A person crosses this empty space while somebody else looks at
him, and this is what is necessary for a theatrical action to be undertaken’ describes Brook. 123
Therefore, if the construction of space occurs through the interplay of movement and time,
The first descriptive words of Beckett’s script clearly outline the physical space, providing
The scenic description suggests that the play occurs in a nocturnal and bare place. He orients
us in the space by placing the protagonists on a country road. The road, which represents a
place between two spaces, suggests that the characters are coming from somewhere or
heading somewhere, yet he doesn’t offer suggestions to where the road leads. The bare space
contains a tree.
123
Peter Brook, The Empty Space: A Book About the Theatre: Deadly, Holy, Rough, Immediate (New York:
Simon and Schuster Inc., 1996), p. 9.
124
Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot: A Tragicomedy in Two Acts (New York: Grove Press Inc., 1954), p. 1.
125
Ibid., p. 8.
57
Placing the dialogue in the context of the opening lines of the play, the tree of few leaves
gives a sense of bareness just like the space. However, at the beginning of the second act,
Beckett specifies: ‘The tree has four or five leaves’. 126 The tree is a metaphor of life and
earth. In the moment Estragon despairs, Vladimir commands ‘Look at the tree’. 127 He
observes that ‘yesterday evening it was all black and bare. And now it’s covered with
leaves’. 128 In the dead scenes of empty space in which nothing happens, the tree gives a sense
of hope and orientation. The second act represents the second day of waiting for Godot.
Beckett instructs that the characters are in the same place and time. ‘It’s evening, Sir, it’s
evening, night is drawing nigh [...] I have lived through this long day and I can assure you it
is very near the end of its repertory’ announces Vladimir. 129 The situation does not shift and
over the duration of the scenes of waiting, the landscape and atmosphere of the space do not
change either.
As discussed at the beginning of this chapter, the effect of the setting enables the experience
of the present time. The sense of now draws attention to the physical space of emptiness
which is filled by the physical presence of the characters. The sense of no place is reflected in
the anonymous characters as it is through their physical appearance, their costume and their
behaviour in the space that the audience perceives them as tramps. Their ragged clothes and
torn shoes reflect their social belonging which is connected to the time and place of when the
play was written. Costume designer Elizabeth Whiting of Auckland Theatre Company’s
Godot explains that her role is dependent on the playwright’s script. ‘The text is the starting
126
Ibid., p. 62.
127
Ibid., p. 66.
128
Ibid., p. 73.
129
Ibid., p. 98.
58
point for all design’ she states, ‘I need to understand the references in the text and understand,
As explained by Whiting, the text and descriptions in the script demonstrate how Beckett
sensually intends to immerse the audience into the space. In the minimal setting, the
characters with poor clothing stand out. There is no visual division between the characters;
they are all dressed up in rags. Thus, the characters become an extension of the barren stage
environment. As explained at the start of this chapter through Husserl’s theory, the characters
are temporal objects. In fact, between day and night, the characters are affected by the spatial
conditions they inhabit. ‘My clothes dried in the sun’ 132 says Estragon and as the night
approaches, Vladimir remarks ‘I’m cold’. 133 The discomfort caused by the cold environment
seeps through their poor clothing and is reflected through their emotional agitation. They
function with respect to their spatial situation and therefore it is through their presence that
130
Elizabeth Whiting, ‘Waiting for Godot’, The Arts Online [n.d]
<http://artsonline2.tki.org.nz/resources/lessons/drama/godot/design_e.php> [accessed 20 May 2015]
131
Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot: A Tragicomedy in Two Acts (New York: Grove Press Inc., 1954), p. 75.
132
Ibid., p. 58.
133
Ibid., p. 81.
59
Beckett complements the descriptive scenic details with the textual element of the play, to
create the narrative structure of the fictional world. The playwright challenges mimesis by
avoiding decorative details of the space and thus the characters could be in any place. Enoch
Brater, a specialist on modern and contemporary drama, writes an article on why Beckett’s
dramatic work remains successful. He explains that Beckett avoids references to places; the
characters waiting on the country road are ‘nonetheless, somewhere; that somewhere turns
out to be a stage, the stage, any stage, every stage’ he says. 134 Since the play is constructed in
empty space, it can be produced in any spatial context and therefore the strength of the play
lies on that which enables the experience of waiting. ‘His scenography is anything but
abstract [...] In Godot we don’t have to know precisely where we are in order to recognize
exactly where we are’ claims Brater.135 Hence, to produce Beckett’s literary text, the director
is not limited to a specific physical space as the scenes of waiting can be produced in any
The different productions of Beckett’s Godot across the globe prove that the script’s minimal
setting can operate in multiple spaces. This is important as like Lefebvre’s argument of social
space noted in this chapter, any space is social space and similarly any empty space can hold
a theatrical event as theatre is a means by which social relations develop. In 1957, the play
was staged in San Quentin Prison: ‘in the North Dining Hall on an improvised stage in front
of 1,400 convicts, with guards posted all around, rifles at the ready’. 136 In 2007, the Classical
Theatre of Harlem staged the play outdoors for the communities which suffered the
destruction of Hurricane Katrina. Actor Wendell Pierce describes why the play is significant
to this context:
134
Enoch Brater, ‘The Globalization of Beckett's "Godot"’, Comparative Drama, Vol. 37, No. 2 (2003), 145-
158, in JSTOR < http://www.jstor.org/stable/41154182> [accessed 12 January 2015] (p.150).
135
Ibid., p. 151.
136
David Bradby, Beckett: Waiting for Godot (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), p. 102.
60
Godot also symbolised our very existence which had disappeared; our neighbourhood was no
longer there, and we feared it would not return. After Katrina, many survivors were asking
'Should I give up?' and Waiting for Godot offered the answer, 'We must go on.’ 137
Both productions demonstrate not only how the play functions outside of the conventional
theatre, but also how the directors are able to negotiate the meaning of the text as the
spectator interprets the work of art through the spatial context it inhabits.
As highlighted at the beginning of this section, although Beckett’s text is directorial, it is not
dictatorial. The playwright’s minimal instructions guide the director, yet they do not restrict
theatre practitioners to stick to any form of empty space and thus creates possibilities for the
in 1984 shows that the staging techniques can go against Beckett’s stage directions.
The play was staged in the round with the enclosed performance space defined by a round
area of sand [...] Two joined tables surrounded by eight chairs stood in this arena. A black
working light hung above the table with a black wire dangling from it, which turned into a
green, leafy twig after the interval: a remnant of Beckett’s tree. 138
Instead of leaving the space bare, the director places the actors in a scene which appears
similar to their rehearsal space. Together with the stage manager, the director and the
designer, the actors drink coffee in the space until their names are called out and the play
starts. As the description shows, the only thing which resembles Beckett’s description is the
impression of the tree. In the scenes, the actors are indoors and through their dialogue they
make reference to the outdoor surrounding, prompting the spectator to imagine the place of
137
David Smith, ‘In Godot we trust’, The Guardian, 8 March 2009, The Observer
<http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2009/mar/08/samuel-beckett-waiting-for-godot> [accessed 12 May 2015]
138 Antje Diedrich, ‘PERFORMANCE AS REHEARSAL: George Tabori's Staging of Beckett's "Waiting for
Godot" and "Endgame"’, Editions Rodopi B.V., Vol. 15 (2005), 147-160, in JSTOR
<http://www.jstor.org/stable/25781509> [accessed 19 January 2015] (p.148).
61
their waiting. According to theatre scholar Jonathan Kalb, ‘Tabori’s production is not merely
a mimesis [...] but a meditation on mimesis’. 139 Tabori’s approach reinvents the setting of the
play proving that Beckett’s minimalist style creates a fictional world and inspires its
Whilst, theatre plays are based on a structure which offers the director details on how to
design the theatrical environment, in performance art there is no narrative. Artists turn to their
bodies as art material and base their work on process rather than on creating a product.
According to critic RoseLee Goldberg, ‘conceptual art implied the experience of time, space
and material rather than their representation in the form of objects’. 140 Hence, as performance
art breaks traditions of representation, it reforms spaces by making work which is directly
Musuem of Modern Art (MoMA). In the art museum, Abramović outlines her artistic
trajectory and presents five historical pieces together with The Artist is Present. The gallery
looks like a film set; the performance space is marked out at the centre of the space with
white tape and highlighted with what the artist calls a ‘square of light’. 141 The spectator is
literally invited into the exhibited art object which consists of the seated artist, an empty chair
with a table in between. The artist engages in an intimate encounter with the audience
through her gaze in a public space. Abramović presents her body just like an art object in the
139
Jonathan Kalb, Beckett in Performance (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), p. 92.
140
RoseLee Goldberg, Performance Art: From Futurism to the Present (London: Thames & Hudson, 2011), p.
152-153.
141
Marina Abramovic: The Artist Is Present, directed by Matthew Akers (HBO Documentary Films, 2012) [on
DVD]
62
gallery; through her still physical presence, she reflects the closed parameters of the gallery
which stores fixed objects. Her conceptual approach negotiates possibilities of meaning and
challenges the public’s behaviour in the space which is inscribed with a set of regulations.
Abramović criticizes the museum’s boundaries and argues that ‘the public has been very
passive and just a voyeur of the art work [...] you don’t touch the art work [...] you never
really interact’. 142 In the space, she builds an interactive structure in which the spectator is
witnessed responding to the art ‘object’, the artist herself. Therefore, Abramović goes beyond
the representation of the gallery space and creates an art work which can only exist as an
In a discussion which questions the meaning of the term museum, American performance
artist and theoretician Allan Kaprow asserts that museums ‘provide canned life, an
aestheticized illustration of life. “Life” in the museum is like making love in a cemetery’. 143
permanence of art in the museum through her body. Whilst she sits in ‘dead’ stillness like an
object, she radicalises the social meaning of the space. A gallery represents a geometric
structural space which contains artworks; it possesses them, exhibits them and sometimes
sells them. In the book Inside the White Cube: The Ideology of the Gallery Space (1999), art
critic Brian O’Doherty comments on the artistic practice within the specific context of post-
minimalism and conceptual art of the 1970s. He presents a thought provoking critique of the
spatial practice within the gallery space and states that the ‘white, ideal space [...] clarifies
Hans Ulrich Obrist, Marina Abramović- Volume 23 of Conversation Series (Cologne: Verlag der
142
itself through a process of historical inevitability usually attached to the art it contains’. 144 He
claims that behind the walls, the object is isolated and ‘conventions are preserved through the
repetition of a closed system of values’. 145 Therefore, the gallery’s identity is determined by
the work which it exhibits. Abramović installs her art piece in the MoMA. The museum’s
mission statement states that it aspires to ‘create a dialogue between the established and
experimental, the past and the present, in an environment that is responsive to the issues of
modern and contemporary art’.146 As the artist’s work has provoked conventional aesthetics
and meanings and raised questions on what is art, setting her performance at the MoMA
implies that the genre of performance art is significant to the progression of the art industry.
Another fundamental element of the dramatic text and the performance art piece is time. A
crucial difference between space and time is that whilst space is multidimensional, time is
singular. As demonstrated in the above analysis, space can alter its meaning through the
artists’ compositional choices. On the other hand, there is only one time, polarised by past
and future. In theatre and performance, the spectator perceives the space over the duration of
In Waiting for Godot, time seems to be fixed as nothing happens. The empty space contains
no knowledge of past or future. With no relation to space or time, the present moment
becomes unbearable for the characters and thus they occupy themselves with action and
nonsensical dialogue. The playwright prolongs time, whilst the protagonists try to kill it.
144
Brian O’Doherty, Inside the White Cube:The Ideology of the Gallery Space (San Francisco, The Lapis Press,
1976), p.14.
145
Ibid.
146
The Museum of Modern Art (“MoMA”). Mission Statement (2014) <www.moma.org/about/index>
[accessed 10 October 2014]
64
The feeling that there is no end to this experience is emphasized through the pauses and gaps
in the script. The pauses isolate the words and phrases and create space in between the
conversation. More empty space draws attention to the stillness of time. The characters pass
time through tedious and monotonous repetitive actions, transforming the anxiety into action.
‘We could do our exercises’ suggests Vladimir, but the ‘movements’, ‘elevations’,
‘relaxations’ and ‘elongations’ do not free them from the waiting time. 148
The duration of the play is tied to the non-arrival of Godot. Waiting is an action experienced
by staying in the same place over a course of time. In the play, the action does not start nor
finishes. In between the passages of hope and despair, the characters move from left to right,
147
Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot: A Tragicomedy in Two Acts (New York: Grove Press Inc., 1954), p. 86.
148
Ibid.
149
Ibid., p. 59.
65
The dialogue between the characters at the end of the first act gives the impression that there
will be a development in the situation which they inhabit, yet, there is no progression in the
plot. As nothing changes, ‘in the midst of nothingness’ the characters struggle with the
duration of time. 150 ‘We wait [...] we are bored to death, there's no denying it’ admits
Vladimir. 151 Yet, until the end, Beckett maintains the same scene of waiting. In fact, the
The overview of the play shows that both the characters and the audience are captured in a
time bracket with no content about either past or present. ‘They are there from beginning to
end of the first act [...] standing alone on the stage, superfluous, without future, without past,
irremediably there’ states the critic Alain Robbe-Grillet. 152 All they know of is the present
moment of waiting. ‘To wait and not know how to wait is to experience Time’ asserts
performance theorist Richard Schechner. 153 In this statement, the theorist pins down the
concept of the play. In the experience where time stands still, all that matters is the present.
The experience of no progress is highlighted in Pozzo’s utterance at the end of the play.
POZZO: Have you not done tormenting me with your accursed time! It’s abominable! When!
When! One day, is that not enough for you, one day he went dumb, one day I went blind, one
day we’ll go deaf, one day were born, one day we shall day, the same day, the same second,
is that not enough for you?’ 154
The emergency in this line confirms that as time appears and feels fixed, there is only ‘one’
moment. With no changes in the situation of waiting, Beckett heightens the characters’
150
Ibid., p. 92.
151
Ibid.
152
Alain Robbe-Grillet, For a New Novel: Essays on Fiction (Illinois: Northwestern University Press, 1963), p.
121.
153
Richard Schechner, ‘Godotology: There’s Lots of Time in Godot’ in Modernism in European Drama: Ibsen,
Strindberg, Pirandello, Beckett : Essays from Modern Drama ed. by Frederick J. Marker, C. D. Innes (Toronto:
University of Toronto Press, 1998), pp.191-199 (p.196).
154
Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot: A Tragicomedy in Two Acts (New York: Grove Press Inc., 1954), p. 103.
66
struggle to bear with the conditions of the space, forcing the audience to surrender into the
The time factor is an essential component of Abramović’s performance art work. Her
methodology is based on the ephemeral quality of time which she portrays through durational
performances that require disciplined mental concentration and physical stamina as the artist
The exhibition presents durational performances like objects in the museum. The
performances last for over a total of 700 hours spread over three months. Five of these
Luminosity (1997) presents a human body seated on a sawhorse, naked and motionless with
arms slightly raised at a distance from her side. Light is projected on her body as she holds a
strong gaze looking at a fixed point in the distance. For this exhibition, the performing body
is placed on a bicycle seat 10 m feet high against a wall. The adaption demonstrates how the
work is adjusted to the context of gallery, as the light frames the body against the wall, just
like an art object in a museum. Relation in Time (1997), originally performed by Abramović
and her partner Ulay, features a motionless couple, sitting back-to-back with their hair
braided together. The two human bodies are connected through their hair becoming a singular
static object. This durational piece was originally performed for 17 hours. Imponderabilia
(1997) is another duet performance based on two naked bodies standing opposite each other
in the museum entrance, forcing the public to enter the museum through the limited space.
155
Ibid., p. 57.
67
Since her early pieces, the artist explores the physical body and mind over extended periods
of time. The influences to her work include a research study on ascetic practices from Eastern
and Western philosophical and mystical traditions including Buddhist and shamanistic
cultures and the Aborigines tribe. The artist is interested in ‘the illumination of the state of
mind’ which is achieved in the repetitive and ritualistic ceremonies. 156 She recreates the
experience, arguing that ‘performance is the very tool with which this can be done [...] you
have to deal with time. There has to be long-durational pieces’. 157 The performance in the
gallery ritualizes the mundane to create an experience that is independent of time; it is simply
In The Artist is Present, Abramović goes a step further by inviting the spectator into the
experience of time. Through the piece she explores ‘how you can bring the performer and
audience in the same state of consciousness, here and now’. 158 The artist explains that the
...the waiting to sit is a very important part of the piece, because it’s not just about being there
in the front, it’s about taking that time, and going through the process. To me, the waiting and
the sitting itself are actually complementary. 159
Therefore, the people queuing for the performance, as well as the people moving around the
gallery witnessing the encounter are creators of this experience. The piece portrays the
transitory element of time through the ongoing movement created by the visitors of the
museum and the participants who choose to sit in front of the artist. On the other hand,
Hans Ulrich Obrist, Marina Abramović- Volume 23 of Conversation Series (Cologne: Verlag der
156
Abramović reflects the other aspect of time; the stillness of the present moment. The curator
of the exhibition, Klaus Biesenbach describes that Abramović ‘visualises time, using her
body in the space with the audience. By the duration she brings time in a wait, just imagine
time as an unbearably large object you cannot move and you are caught in’. 160
The documentary film The Artist is Present (2012) captures scenes from the performance
event showing the interaction between performers and audience. The spectator is seen
captivated by the process-based works. Some even spend long hours, becoming as still as the
performances that they witness. Abigail Levine, one of the performers involved in the MoMA
exhibition, describes the experience of being part of the durational work. She says that daily
for three months, she was there ‘like a painting [...] And there was a sort-of pleasant
quotidianness about it’. 161 Bruce Hermann, a visitor of the exhibition, shares his experience
and similar to the performer makes reference to the mundane quality of the work. ‘You’re
drawn in by watching people stand or sit or do things to themselves or each other, and after a
period of time I found myself going to a subconscious place’ he describes. 162 Therefore, the
exhibition ties the performance art pieces into a holistic experience in which the sense of
Now that the review of the two case studies shows how the artists compose the experience of
the live event through the interplay of place and time, it also confirms the explanation
and time. Waiting for Godot is based on a fictional world which portrays characters in an
empty space. On the other hand, Abramović’s performance is installed in an arts gallery. The
160
Marina Abramovic: The Artist Is Present, directed by Matthew Akers (HBO Documentary Films, 2012) [on
DVD]
Carrie Stern, ‘The artist is present in the bodies of any: Reperformng Marina Abramović’, Agôn, 2013, La
161
dichotomy of the transitory and fixed element of time mentioned in the phenomenological
study explains how both artists situate the body in an empty space tied to a time-constrain to
happening in a real space, it also creates a fictional place as it is created with the intention to
present, which like the nature of consciousness that perceives it, is ephemeral.
70
Chapter Five
The analysis of the two case studies portrays the centrality of the spectator’s role in the drama
and the performance art piece. Beckett’s and Abramović’s methodologies are similar as they
both create a stage and platform that is empty of object to shift the focus on the performing
body. Beckett’s script is full of instructions of movement and gesture, whilst Abramović sits
motionless in empty space. The mode of representation fails to provide meaning and over the
duration of the play and the performance, the spectator waits for something to happen. Since
the play is without a storyline and the performance art piece has no narrative, the
interpretation of the live event does not rely on empirical knowledge but is instead
constructed to be experienced.
The word experience comes from the Latin experiential meaning ‘a trial, proof, experiment;
knowledge gained by repeated trials’. 163 Both works are cyclical; through space and time, the
artists manipulate the performing bodies and create a sense of waiting. The examination of
Beckett’s script and Abramović’s exhibition shows that within the space of waiting, the
spectator has time to reflect on the recurrences of the event. As discussed in the previous
chapters, the dialogue in the play’s plot is meaningless and Abramović’s exhibiton is
conceptual. Therefore, the interpretation of the works is possible through the spectator who is
conscious of his own body witnessing the performing body. In this process, the spectator not
only sees the action, but is also conditioned to surrender to the situation of waiting. Hence,
both works are not confined to the spectacle of object and body in space but instead inspire a
163
Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictonary, online dictionary, (2001-2015)
<http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=theater> [accessed 12 May 2015]
71
important to look once again at the artistic strategy which enables this experience.
Beckett’s drama revolves around the waiting for Godot, a character who in the play never
arrives. Beckett must have understood the psychology of the human analytical mind as he
Caught up in the pattern of unanswered questions, the characters find themselves profoundly
contemplating on their existence. Vladimir reflects on the long hours of waiting ‘which may
at first seem reasonable […] But has it not long been straying in the night without end of the
abyssal depths?’ 165 The questions apparent in the dialogue of the protagonists temporarily
conceal the haunting desperation of the empty space. The characters speak compulsively to
escape the fear of the experience of silence. Yet, Beckett’s methodical play evades answering
164
Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot: A Tragicomedy in Two Acts (New York: Grove Press Inc., 1954), p. 71.
165
Ibid., p. 91.
72
the questions which are raised over the duration of the play. ‘We are waiting for Godot’ is
As the play draws attention to the limitations of the human mind to find meaning, the
playwright runs the risk of becoming too reductive to sustain the attention of the spectator.
He develops the scenes of waiting through tension and action tied together with moments of
silence.
As this extract clearly shows, although Godot is never seen by the protagonists or the
spectator, he is always present as he is in title as well as in the subject of the dialogue of the
play. Since Godot fails to come, the focus of the play becomes that which is non-existent. In a
critique on the Theatre of the Absurd, Martin Esslin draws attention to the lack of formalism
in the play and suggests that it is this characteristic that engages the spectator to the work. He
writes that Beckett’s play is constructed on ‘the transient, unendingly decaying nature of the
166
Ibid., p. 8.
167
Ibid., p. 69-70.
73
material universe and the immaterial aspect of consciousness’. 168 Noting the quality of
inherent formlessness designed through space and time, the critic points out that in the play
what appears to lack complexity is in fact meant to evoke discussions on the depth of
conceivable as unlimited, without end’, writes the critic. 169 In the play, this experience is
Similar to a spiritual practice in which the individual confides in God, the characters seek to
find refuge in Godot. Like God, Godot never appears. Within the name of the invisible
protagonist, is a reference to God. ‘Godot is God [...] Godot is silence: you have to speak
while you wait for it in order to have the right to be still at last’ claims the critic Alain Robbe-
Grillet. 170 Although Godot never shows up, he is equally present as much as the other
characters. Robbe-Grillet’s critique digs deeper into the role of Godot in the play as he
explains that the character is not just the figure which unites the protagonists in the situation
of waiting. ‘Godot is the inaccessible self’ highlights the critic. 171 What he means is that in
the experience of numerical silences, and thus through Godot, the spectator is able to perceive
his own self. Hence, Godot, and therefore silence, is the experience of presence.
In the book The Literature of Silence: Henry Miller and Samuel Beckett (1967), literary
theorist Ihab Hassan comments on the literary phenomenon of silence. He observes that the
playwright skillfully distorts the power of word by filling speech with silence to evoke human
consciousness. He states ‘we shall wait for Godot in vain […] In this Cartesian nightmare,
168
Martin Esslin, Samuel Beckett: A Collection of Critical Essays (New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc, 1965), p. 7.
169
Ibid.
170
Alain Robbe-Grillet, ‘Samuel Beckett, or 'Presence' in the Theatre’ in Samuel Beckett: A Collection of
Critical Essays ed. Martin Esslin (New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc, 1965), pp. 108-116 (p.110)
171
Ibid.
74
Beckett leaves only one thing intact; the capacity of human consciousness to reflect on itself
and to entertain its own end’. 172 Hassan’s statement explains why Beckett does not rely on
the dialogue to provide knowledge and instead chooses silence. ‘his silence, despite its grim,
satiric note, has something in common with the silence of holy men who, after knowing pain
and outrage, reach for a peace beyond human understanding’ he continues. 173 Like Robbe-
Grillet, Hassan notes that in the theatrical experience silence is not an absence of action or
dialogue; silence is presence as it becomes figural through Godot. Thus, like a meditative
ritual, the characters of the play and the spectators of the live event unite in scenes of waiting
through which the absent body of Godot evokes the intangible experience of presence.
the gaps in the narrative and claims that the ‘silences effect a disclosure of the theatrical
present in its physiological actuality’. 174 Like Esslin and Hassan, he notes that silence enables
the experience of presence which is dependent on the presence of the spectator. ‘No account
audience-the individual/collective "third body" (along with character and actor) of the stage's
intercorporeal field’ states Garner. 175 He explains that in the space of waiting, the spectator
becomes aware of his own sensory body and therefore, to perceive the spectacle in which
nothing appears or happens, the spectator surrenders to experience his own presence.
‘Beckett's spectator is staged as deliberately as his characters and actors’, as within the
172
Ihab Hassan, The Literature of Silence: Henry Miller and Samuel Beckett (New York: Knopf, 1967), p. 30.
173
Ibid.
174
Stanton B. Garner, Jr, ‘"Still Living Flesh": Beckett, Merleau-Ponty, and the Phenomenological Body’,
Theatre Journal, Vol. 45, No. 4, (1993), 443-460, in JSTOR <http://www.jstor.org/stable/3209015> [accessed 3
December 2014] (p.455).
175
Ibid.
75
theatre ‘this presencing becomes subject’ notes the critic. 176 As the spectator like the
characters has no concrete answers to the questions which arise, the play creates an
experience which reflects the universal human condition. Hence, in the play, silence is the
interview, the performance artist describes how the method of reduction in her work
facilitates the creation of an energetic space. She speaks of minimalism as a method which
creates transformation of energy and sustains that ‘it’s incredibly important to cut-off
everything around you in order to create that intensity in you’. 177 Hence, Abramović creates
an immaterial platform moving concentration on what happens inside the individual and in
between the two bodies. The artist describes her experience in the process:
I learned that in your body you have so much space and you can actually move inside that.
There is space between organs, there is space between bones, there is space between atom
and cell, so you can actually start training yourself to breathe a kind of air into that space. 178
In the gallery, the artist offers the audience an opportunity to surrender into the same
experience. The setting of the long durational performance invites the spectator to become an
active participant of the performance. Through a ‘direct connection’ between the spectator
and herself, she aspires for the creation of ‘immaterial art’ based on ‘the performer who
176
Ibid.
Hans Ulrich Obrist, Marina Abramović- Volume 23 of Conversation Series (Cologne: Verlag der
177
performs, and also the audience who take task and give themselves time to be changed with
the piece itself’. 179 To emphasize this connection, half way through the duration of the
exhibition, the artist chooses to remove the table between her and the spectator. Thus, the
The scholar Erika Fischer-Lichte observes a shift in the culture of performance. She notes
that the genre of performance art moves away from the subject and seeks ‘event-ness’ to give
the spectator an embodied art experience. Noting the live ‘transitory and ephemeral’ 180
element in performance, she writes that the concept of performance eliminates the restrictions
of meaning by focusing on the ‘aesthetic and a social, even political, process in which
relationships are negotiated, power struggles fought out, and communities emerge and
vanish’. 181 Abramović’s ‘event-ness’ of the performance is evident as the artist offers herself
and gives a unique personal moment to anybody who chooses to sit and participate in the
process. The impact of Abramović’s technique is recorded in the documentary film The Artist
is Present (2012) in which members of the audience are seen sitting in front of the artist and
Paco Blancas, a visitor of the exhibition recounts the magnetic experience which enticed him
to keep returning to the gallery and participate in the experience. ‘Sitting with her is a
transforming experience—it’s luminous, it’s uplifting, it has many layers, but it always
179
Ibid.
180
Erika Fischer-Lichte, The Routledge Introduction to Theatre and Performance Studies (Oxon: Routledge,
2014), p. 19.
181
Ibid., p. 42.
77
comes back to being present, breathing, maintaining eye contact’ describes Blancas. 182
Whilst he points out the artist’s powerful presence in the transformational experience, he also
notes the effect of the presence of the audience around the gallery. ‘it creates this movement
within you […] we’ve been there for so many hours on line and you don’t even notice it’ he
explains. 183 Therefore, one might say that the event is not only an experience for the
individual member of the audience, but it becomes a communal ritual where those present in
To understand how Abramović’s performance affects the audience in this manner, one must
analyze the artist’s technique of reduction. The artist developed her technique over forty
years of practice that aims towards immaterial art. Known as the Abramović Method, the
practice aims to slow down the busy rhythms which we are used to. ‘If you give me time, I
will give you experience’ claims Abramović. 184 She maintains that both performer and
spectator require a set of skills for the staging and watching long-duration performances.
exercises, such as walking in slow motion, counting grains of rice, and observing a single
object for hours’. 185 The impact of the long durational practices is seen in the transformative
engagement of the present audience as the presence of the artist multiplies through the
182
Julia Kaganskiy, ‘Visitor Viewpoint: Marina Abramović’, The Museum of Modern Art, 29 March 2010,
Viewpoints section <http://www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/2010/03/29/visitor-viewpoint-marina-
abramovic> [accessed 5 November 2014]
183
Ibid.
184
Sesc em São Paulo. Terra Comunal - Marina Abramović convida para o Método Abramović, online video
recording, YouTube, 3 March 2015 <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EARruLDb3jY> [accessed 10 May
2015]
185
Klaus Peter Biesenbach, Marina Abramović: The Artist is Present (New York: Museum of Modern Art,
2010), p. 18.
78
The overview of Beckett’s play and Abramović’s performance shows that the reductive
technique produces an experience which goes beyond meaning. Emerging from silence, the
events are transient experiences that rely on the bodily presence of performer and spectator.
The playwright’s theatrical silence and the performance artist’s energy shift concentration
onto the continuous present which enables self-perception. To comprehend the relationship
between the performing body and the spectator in the performance and to understand how the
artists’ reductive technique enables the experience one’s sense of self, it is necessary to refer
The ephemeral events of theatre and performance create a somatic experience. Somatic refers
to that which is lived, internalized, comprehended and articulated through the performing
body and the spectator in the process of perception. The analysis of Beckett’s and
Abramović’s techniques outlines that the script and performance resist formal semiotic
meaning and representation to create an event which depends on the intuitive, subjective and
personal lived experience. In the discussion on theatrical space, director Peter Brook writes of
a ‘sacred’ space in which ‘the face of the invisible’ is formed through an experience and
made visible by ‘rhythms or shapes’. 186 The artists create this ‘sacred’ environment through a
space of silence which reflects the presence of human consciousness in the live event.
Although the artists’ method of reduction is crucial for the somatic experience, the theatre
and performance event is only functional through the presence of the spectator.
Recalling Husserl’s method of reduction which is mentioned in the second chapter, the
phenomenological tradition breaks down the representation of the object to study the
186
Peter Brook, The Empty Space: A Book About the Theatre: Deadly, Holy, Rough, Immediate (New York:
Simon and Schuster, 1996), p. 42.
79
the world is equally a consciousness in the world. ‘Experience is the performance in which
for me, the experiencer, experienced being “is there”’ explains Husserl. 187 In other words,
the experience of consciousness is possible through the intentional act of pertaining and
immersing in the present moment, and therefore it is possible through the awareness of
having a body. For Husserl, the body is fundamentally ‘the bearer of the here and now’. 188 He
notes that in each living body there is a present consciousness which is the primitive source
of the presence of man in the world. ‘before everything else conceivable, I am’ states
Husserl. 189 According to the phenomenologist, the ‘I’ is that who experiences and includes
‘me myself, my life, my believing, and all this consciousness-of’. 190 His statement clarifies
that to be conscious of something signifies that there is a consciousness which orients itself
through space and time in the world and this perceptual ability creates the experience.
Consciousness, or as termed by Husserl the ‘I am’, is present in the experience of the theatre
and performance events. In the drama, consciousness is evident through the protagonists who
are conscious subjects struggling with their surroundings. ‘What is terrible is to have thought’
asserts Vladimir, noting that the human condition is creating resistance to the situation. 191
‘We should turn resolutely towards Nature’ proposes Estragon, suggesting that there is
another level of consciousness. 192 Martin Esslin claims that the absurdist theatre is
187
Edmund Husserl, Formal and Transcendental Logic (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1969), p. 233.
188
Edmund Husserl, The Essential Husserl: Basic Writings in Transcendental Phenomenology (Indiana: Indiana
University Press, 1999), p. 164.
189
Edmund Husserl, Formal and Transcendental Logic (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1969), p. 237.
190
Ibid.
191
Beckett, p. 71.
192
Ibid.
80
constructed on the consciousness of man’s existence. ‘How does this individual feel when
confronted with the human condition?’ asks Esslin with reference to the experience of being
conscious. 193 Similarly, Abramović stages the experience of being conscious through the
spectator who sits in front of the artist. ‘I could not produce a single work without the
presence of the audience, because the audience gave me the energy to be able, through a
specific action, to assimilate it and return it’ sustains Abramović. 194 The artist’s statement
confirms that the co-presence of the bodily appearance is necessary in the creation of the
experience. Therefore, Husserl’s phenomenological theory confirms that that which occurs on
the level of consciousness in the theatre experience and the performance process is perceived
tradition. Whilst Husserl observes the body in space and time, Merleau-Ponty insists that the
body ‘inhabits space and time’. 195 He explains that the ‘body is our general medium for
having a world’ as it is through the body that we can perceive and be perceived. 196 Merleau-
Ponty writes about experiencing art in relation to the body and the world and notes that
beyond the object of art, there is a sensation of depth. ‘What I call depth is either nothing, or
the being of space’ explains the phenomenologist. 197 Merleau-Ponty’s argument is based on
the experience of painting. Even though in this analysis the work of art is a performance, in
193
Martin Esslin, The Theatre of the Absurd (London: Penguin Hooks, 1983), p. 405.
194
Cornelia H. Butler, WACK!: art and the feminist revolution (Los Angeles: Museum of Contemporary Art,
2007), p. 209.
195
Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology of Perception (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd., 1962), p.
161.
196
Ibid., p. 169.
197
Ibid., p. 134.
81
phenomenological terms, one still relates to the event like an object in space and its
experience also contains a depth which is not visible. If in art the body interacts with the
things which are visible, in performance, the presence of the spectator unites with the
spectacle. Merleau-Ponty explains that this experience gives rise to another space which is
neither the geometrical space which is perceived, nor the bodily space which perceives. ‘This
space is not, like them […] it is the place of the body that the soul calls “mine,” a place the
The evaluation of the phenomenological theory in relation to the two case studies explains
how the artists’ works of art articulate and portray human consciousness through the
experiential event. In the process, they seek to transform the spectator into an active agent of
the live event. As explained the spectator is engaged to the event through the physical body
and this engagement enables the experience. However, one cannot deny that the spectator
does not only exist through the body, but also through the mind. What is the role of the mind
Erika Fischer-Lichte observes that at the beginning of the 20th century there was a shift the
role of the spectator. ‘theatre was not to be defined anymore through its representations but
through the processes of constructions which it triggers’ claims the performance theorist. 199
In the case of Beckett’s script and Abramović’s concept, the experiences are constructed on
scenes of waiting. The spectator experiences waiting together with the actors and the artist.
The construction of the avant-garde play and the performance art piece serve as experiments;
the constructed realities prompt an experience to be perceived by the visceral body of the
198
Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Ted Toadvine, The Merleau-Ponty Reader (Illinois: NorthWestern University
Press, 2007), p. 365.
199
Erika Fischer-Lichte, The Show and the Gaze of Theatre: A European Perspective
(Iowa: Iowa University Press, 1997), p. 70.
82
spectator. Whilst the artists’ methodology is different with relation to action and words, in
As already highlighted in this chapter, the manifestation of Godot becomes figural through
the experience of the characters, and similarly the spectator is lured into the active silence of
the drama. In an article on the relevance of Waiting for Godot in the theatrical canon, critic
Peter Hall explains that ‘Godot returned theatre to its metaphorical roots. It challenged and
defeated a century of literal naturalism […] Godot provided an empty stage, a tree and two
figures who waited and survived. You imagined the rest’.200 Hall points out that Beckett’s
reductive method inspires the spectator to create meaning out of the staged situation. The
study of the origins of theatre demonstrates that the Greek philosopher Aristotle recognizes
different from either perceiving or discursive thinking […] For imagining lies within our own
power whenever we wish’. 201 Aristotle’s claim explains that Beckett’s theatre acquires an
independency from the playwright. As the script entails the imagination and emotion for its
interpretation, the live experience is similarly conceived through the reception of the
spectator. Thus, as already explained in the third chapter in the discussion of the body, the
experience of the live event is formed through the encounter of the performer and spectator in
In Abramović’s performance, the spectator has an active role. This is clear as the set includes
an empty chair for the spectator to be part of the process of the piece. The live presence of the
artist’s body stimulates the sensory faculty of the spectator who seeks to find meaning in the
performance of no words. Like a visual art object, Abramović sits still over for a long
200
Peter Hall, ‘GodotMania’, The Guardian, 4 October 2013, Theatre section
<http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2003/jan/04/theatre.beckettat100> [accessed 10 June 2015]
201
Aristotle, On the Soul (Stilwell: Digireads.com, 2006), p.76. Google ebook.
83
duration of time. Her strong presence manifests that the static appearance is illusory and
something isn't experiencing it; this is experience […] we give people permission to do
nothing – to close their eyes and just be with themselves. What we give people is themselves’
states Abramović. 202 Thus, the performance art piece is transient; it cannot be captured but it
can be experienced through feeling. What happens in the gallery is not to be looked at
So far, the analysis demonstrates that both works manifest an experience through the living
bodies of the performer and spectator. That which is staged makes no sense ; the rational ‘I
think’ interprets the situation as an empty space in which nothing is happening, but the
perceptual experience arouses sensations which signify that in what appears to be empty,
there is the presence of consciousness. In the play, this presence is represented by the absent
Godot, whilst in Abramović it is found in the intangible result of the experience between the
performing body and the spectator. Therefore, the interpretation of Beckett’s literature and
The analysis of Beckett’s and Abramović’s techniques and the phenomenological study of
the experience the themes of the work are not tied to any historical, social or political context
and are therefore functional in any contextual setting. In fact, Waiting for Godot has been
reworked globally, adopting different theatre styles and artistic methodologies. In 1976,
Benjy Francis directed an all-black production in Cape Town, South Africa. The director
claims that staging the play in a cultural context which suffers racism serves as ‘a powerful
202
Sean O'Hagan, ‘Interview: Marina Abramović’, The Guardian, 3 October 2010, The Observer
<http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2010/oct/03/interview-marina-abramovic-performance-artist>
[accessed 21 October 2014]
84
metaphor of our struggle which allowed me to get past the censor and speak to my people’. 203
The director describes how the performance text and setting are independent from any fixed
context and thus, the play is effective as a theatrical experience. ‘The tree was central to my
staging; when it started to sprout leaves in act two, that sent a powerful message to oppressed
people - it suggested new life and resolution, an image of hope against all the desolation’
explains Francis. 204 On the other hand, director Bruno Boussagol discusses the challenges of
the script which is written for male characters. ‘you are very limited in your possibilities,
because Beckett specified how it should be played [...] For me, no writer can impose his view
on a production’ claims Boussagol. 205 Although Beckett’s mise-en-scène inscribe that the
gender of the actors is male, the director reworks and produces the play with a female cast in
Beckett’s script has not only been explored on stage; it transcended the absurdist era and has
also inspired contemporary representations of the work through digital media. Between 1997
and 2001, the artists Adrienne Jenik and Lisa Brenneis create an online version of Waiting for
Godot at The Palace, an online graphic chat environment. The audience was made up of
Internet users who logged onto the network whilst the festival attendees could watch the
online action on a projection screen. Their project called Desktop Theater consists of ongoing
live theatrical interventions in online visual chat rooms. Jenik explains that this particular
project was based on a ‘cut-and-paste performance, literally copying the text from a text
document, and quickly pasting it into the chat input window’. 206 The chatters respond to the
203
David Smith, ‘In Godot we trust’, The Guardian, 8 March 2009, The Observer
<http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2009/mar/08/samuel-beckett-waiting-for-godot> [accessed 12 May 2015]
204
Ibid.
205
Ibid.
206
Adriene Jenik, ‘Desktop Theater: Keyboard Catharsis and the Masking of Roundheads’, TDR, Vol. 45, No. 3
(2001), 95-112, in JSTOR < http://www.jstor.org/stable/1146914> [accessed 14 October 2014] (p.99)
85
text ‘comment on our presence, leave in confusion, or join the piece by trying to help us
locate “godot” on the server’. 207 This immersive live performance experiment demonstrates
that Beckett’s production is universally applicable as it does not belong to a place or time and
Artist is Present, but also through the succession of her works which follow the same
concept. Following the three month exhibition, the artist continued to install her silent pieces
into galleries of big cities. In 2014, the artist presented 512 Hours at the Serpentine Gallery in
London. Visitors were asked to enter the space without any personal belongings and are
given headphones to cut out all sound. The only materials in the space were the artist herself,
the audience and a selection of objects to perform practices of the Abramović Method,
mentioned earlier in this chapter. The critic Adrian Searle writes about his visit and describes
that ‘she and her helpers took us, one by one, to stand in front of the walls and windows,
where we stood, eyes closed, to think about the present, or whatever it is we think about when
we are standing, waiting for nothing’. 208 The project which lasted for 64 days is documented
through a series of video diaries called Marina At Midnight in which the artist reflects on the
day's events at the Serpentine. In her final video on the last day, Abramović says that ‘This
piece is not the end [...] maybe all together we can change the consciousness, and we can
change the world’. 209 The artist’s attempt to create immaterial art continues with another
project in July 2015, this time in at Pier 2/3 Sydney. Marina Abramović: In Residence is a
twelve day art installation in which the artist will once again present the Abramović Method,
208
Adrian Searle, ‘Halfway through 512 hours of Marina Abramović: no one to hear you scream’, The
Guardian, 18 July 2014, Art and Design section
<http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/jul/18/marina-abramovic-halfway-through-512-hours-
serpentine> [accessed 3 October 2014]
209
The Space. Hear From Marina At Midnight (2015)
<http://www.thespace.org/artwork/view/marinaatmidnight#marina250814> [accessed 21 June 2015]
86
yet this time the artist claims that she will show the visitor ‘what you can do for yourself […]
I understood that actually you can’t get any experience by me doing it for you’. 210
The artistic methodology present in Beckett’s minimal play and Abramović’s reductive
technique originally emerged as a reaction towards society, yet, they are still relevant to
contemporary culture. Through the absurdist technique of the fictive genre, Beckett
commented on the decaying nature of the value system of Western culture. Critic Martin
Esslin claims that the Theatre of the Absurd emerged from playwrights who experienced ‘the
vacuum left by the destruction of a universally accepted and unified set of beliefs’. 211 He
draws attention to the changes in the Western world, such as the ‘decline of religious faith,
the destruction of the belief in automatic social and biological progress […] development in
an age of totalitarianism and weapons of mass destruction’ as the source which initiated the
new dramatic technique. 212 Similarly, Abramović accuses the Western society of exhausting
its resources by consumption and sustains that through absence, her work reminds the visitor
that ‘we don’t need anything, being is the highest form of existence’. 213 Theatre and
performance are embedded in a social and cultural context and act as a critique of the specific
setting in which they are created. In the case of the two case studies, the artists not only offer
a perspective on their contextual setting, but draw attention on the nature of consciousness,
210
Kaldor Public Arts Project, Project 30: Marina Abramović (2015) <http://kaldorartprojects.org.au/>
[accessed 28 June 2015]
211
Martin Esslin, ‘The Theatre of the Absurd’, The Tulane Drama Review, 4 (1960), 3-15, in JSTOR
< http://www.jstor.org/stable/1124873 > [accessed 1 October 2014] (p. 6).
212
Ibid.
213
iqsquared, Marina Abramović on art, performance, time and nothingness , online video recording, YouTube,
25 September 2014< https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxf3thHV4nc> [accessed 23 June 2015]
87
sharing her concept, one might say that the theatre and performance event appeals to the
audience as it offers a space of silence within the exhausted contemporary culture. The
profound change experienced through the relationship between the performing body and
audience creates a space in which the spectator can safely confide the questions of existence
Chapter Six
Conclusion
The comparative study of Waiting for Godot and The Artist is Present provides a detailed
analysis of the theatre script and the performance art piece. Whilst outlining the variations
and similarities of the artists’ methodologies, the research draws attention to how both the
avant-garde play and the performance art piece challenge the traditions of their time. In the
case of Beckett’s play, the medium is the text which is based on detailed descriptions of
action and gesture, dialogue and moments of silence. Abramović’s medium is the body which
In the introduction, the thesis illustrates the methods by which the playwright and the
performance artist rejected theatre and performance as a form of spectacle, and alternatively
offered a space which seeks to unite performer and spectator in a sensory experience. The
second chapter demonstrates how the experience cannot be framed into an object. The
through the presence of no ‘thing’, the spectator is able to perceive the transcendental
experience of consciousness. Having emphasized the importance of the live experience, the
third chapter continues to support the argument by analyzing the function of the physical
body of both performer and spectator. Merging Husserl’s discourse on the body with Maurice
Merleau-Ponty’s idea of the intertwining chiasm, the discussion suggests that the experience
of the live event is dependent on the physical bodies of performer and spectator. Chapter four
studies the effect of the minimalist composition through the staging choices of the artists and
the meanings the theatre stage and the art gallery carry as social spaces. The analysis shows
that both works invite the spectator into a space formed by the durational sense of the
continuous present. The final chapter highlights the element of silence that enables a sense of
89
waiting. Providing examples of contemporary representations of the play and noting the
succession of works in Abramović’s career, the research discusses the cultural value of
Beckett’s script and Abramović’s performance. The discussion notes the universal quality of
the works which transcends barriers of space and time as it enables the experience of the
To summarize the above, the artists frame the transitory experience of waiting time into a
performative setting and engage the audience to the space they inhabit in present time.
Beckett’s script and Abramović’s performance manage to grasp the intangible experience and
this is proved by the unlimited critical evaluations and reviews available, some of which are
quoted in this thesis. The analysis of the artistic methodology, the theoretical research and the
discussion raised on the two masterpieces acknowledges Samuel Beckett’s and Marina
Abramović’s contribution to the canon of literary and performance art. In the literary script
and the conceptual performance, rules are broken and meanings and contexts are provoked,
but what seems to matter is the authentic experience which we, as spectators, create out of the
works of art. To know if Godot‘s silence and Abramović’s stillness will be still present in the
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