Performance artist reveals plans for new art centre

Hudson - Marina Abramovic, the performance artist, plans to open a $15 million new art centre in upstate New York. The construction site, formerly a tennis building, will be part art centre, part school, Abromovic revealed.

The artist recently unveiled her design for the The Marina Abramovic Institute for the Preservation of Performance Art at MoMA PS 1 on Monday. Expected to open in Hudson in 2014, the institute will house all sorts of mediums dedicated to the craft of performance art, including video, opera, film, music, dance and theatre. The 65 year old artist also said she wants to use the centre to teach her 'Abramovic method', in which the viewer becomes the artist and vice versa. “For the young artists we will have courses which will be in the countryside, without food, in complete isolation, not talking for a certain amount because it’s really important preparation of the mind to do performance work,” she said, in a telephone interview. Visitors searching for other unique experiences may also choose to levitate in the Levitation Hall,on beds using weight sensitive magnetic fields. Or,in the Crystal Chamber, they can absorb mineral energy to focus their mental and physical energies. Abromavic also said she plans to build a hotel near the site in the future to accommodate guests, as well as a residence for new artists. A Manhattan resident herself, Abromavic revealed she chose the site in Hudson for historical significance (as the birthplace of the Hudson River School art movement), as well as its proximity to other venues.