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The Royal Academy of Arts’ Marina Abramović retrospective ran from 23 September 2023 to 1 January 2024. Its live reenactment of Imponderabilia placed two nude performers in a narrow entrance passage, but visitors could choose an alternative route. Critics disagreed about whether the reenactment carried the force of the original work and how well the exhibition represented Abramović’s later art.
What the Royal Academy exhibition included
The Royal Academy described the show as the first major UK solo survey of Abramović’s work. Spanning a career of more than five decades, it brought together photographs, videos, objects and installations, as well as live reperformances of four works. The exhibition is now closed; the dates and programme below refer to its 2023–24 run. Royal Academy exhibition information
How the nude entrance reenactment worked
A 1977 work performed by other artists
Imponderabilia was created in 1977 by Abramović and her then-partner Ulay. In the RA reenactment, two nude performers stood facing one another in a narrow passage. Visitors could pass between them to enter the galleries, making the act of moving through the doorway part of the encounter. The RA presented the work as an exploration of human relations. Royal Academy exhibition information
Visitors had another way in
Passing between the performers was not required: Sky News reported that the RA provided an alternative entrance for visitors who did not want to use the doorway. Sky News report
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The schedule applied only to the exhibition
The RA’s press release said Imponderabilia was performed daily, with four to six performances a day, each lasting about one hour. That was the announced schedule for the 2023–24 exhibition, not a current performance timetable. Royal Academy exhibition information
Why critics disagreed
Did the reenactment preserve the original’s emotional charge?
Guardian critic Laura Cumming argued that the performers standing in for Abramović and Ulay did not reproduce the connection between the original artists. She described them as “detached and slightly fragile models” and found the exhibition uninvolving. That is Cumming’s assessment of the reenactment and the show, not a measure of visitors’ reactions. The Guardian review
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Evening Standard critic Ben Luke found the doorway awkward but potent. He focused on the vulnerability of the encounter and wrote: “You do everything you can to not touch the performers, but you know it’s impossible.” Luke’s account describes his own experience; it cannot be assumed to represent every visitor’s. The Evening Standard review
Was the awkwardness meaningful?
The doorway could be read as a deliberately uncomfortable confrontation with bodily boundaries, or as an awkward passage that did not achieve its intended effect. PerthNow quoted RA head of exhibitions Andrea Tarsia describing it as a “confrontation between nakedness, and the gender, the sexuality, and the desire.” That was Tarsia’s explanation of the work, not evidence that every visitor experienced it in the same way. PerthNow coverage
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Judgments also differed on Abramović’s later work
The disagreement extended beyond the entrance performance. Luke praised the retrospective’s pacing while criticizing portions of Abramović’s later work; Cumming’s review was broadly negative about the exhibition. PerthNow summarized the coverage as mixed, contrasting favorable Guardian and Evening Standard reviews with a two-star Telegraph review. These are critics’ published judgments, not the result of a visitor survey. The Evening Standard review The Guardian review PerthNow coverage
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What “mixed reviews” means here
It means that individual critics reached different conclusions about the reenactment and the retrospective—not that a known proportion of visitors approved or objected. The sources cited here do not establish representative visitor sentiment or provide a quantified audience response. The reviews instead offer competing interpretations: whether another performer can carry an intimate work’s emotional charge, whether its awkwardness opens a useful encounter with vulnerability, and whether the later work sustains the force of Abramović’s earlier performances.
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