Marina Abramović Sat Silent at MoMA for 736 Hours and 1,545 Strangers Sat With Her

From March 14 to May 31, 2010, Marina Abramović sat in a wooden chair in the second-floor atrium of the Museum of Modern Art in New York and looked at whoever chose to sit in the chair across from her. She did not speak. She did not move. She wore one of three long dresses cut so they would pool on the floor and hide her body's small adjustments. The piece was called The Artist Is Present, and it ran every museum hour, six days a week, for 736 hours and 30 minutes — the centerpiece of MoMA's largest performance-art retrospective.

The queue formed before the museum opened. Some visitors sat with Abramović for a few minutes; some sat for an entire day. The photographer Marco Anelli took a portrait of every sitter who came to the table; the resulting collection runs to 1,545 faces and was eventually published as a separate book. Visitors started a Facebook group called "Sitting with Marina" and a blog called "Marina Abramović Made Me Cry." One of those things turned out to be more accurate than the other.

The most-watched moment came on opening day, March 14. The man who took the seat across from her, unannounced, was Ulay — the German artist with whom Abramović had collaborated and lived between 1976 and 1988, and from whom she had ceremonially separated by walking the Great Wall of China toward him for 90 days in 1988. They had not spoken in years. The footage shows her opening her eyes, registering who was opposite her, and reaching across the table to take his hands. The piece's rule had said no contact. She broke it once.