Quoted: Marina Abramovic Debriefed

Two days after the completion of her performance of “The Artist is Present,” Marina Abramovic spoke to the Wall Street Journal about her two-and-a-half month stay at the MoMA. Of the six months she spent in preparation for the project, she said, “It is like going to the war. It has been so much strictness in my life. I stopped eating meat. I have become vegetarian. I train myself to only take liquids in the night so I will not take any liquids during the day. I will take a liquid every 45 minutes during the night. I take the liquid, go to sleep. Wake up. I take the liquid, go to sleep. My last glass of water I take at 8:00 in the morning and then not anymore.” That explanation was followed with an answer to a question that seemed to be on the minds of a lot of people: “They made a lot of interesting drawings of how I pee. I didn’t even have urge. I really think it is funny how [New York Magazine writer Jerry Saltz] doesn’t even consider this possible to have mind control. And I really have mind control.” And how does one re-enter civilian life after nearly an entire season of mind control? “I just got home. I am getting a makeup artist and hairdresser to make some sense out of me.”