All Over Albany

Hey, that's Marina Abramović and Lady Gaga and... that's... yep...

The Kickstarter campaign for the proposed Marina Abramović Institute in Hudson got a burst of attention Thursday after it posted a clip of Lady Gaga practicing the "Abramović Method" -- "a series of exercises designed to heighten participants' awareness of their physical and mental experience in the present moment" -- at a "three-day retreat in upstate New York."

Oh, and Lady Gaga appears naked in the video. (It's probably NSFW -- because of the nakedness -- but it's pretty tame.)

Gaga and Abramović makes sense -- Lady Gaga is probably a performance artist more than anything else.

As of this morning, The MAI Kickstarter had raised a little more than $260k of its $600k goal with 16 days to go. The campaign recently added a new benefit for backers at $1 level: a hug from Abramović herself:

At this event, called THE EMBRACE, Marina will thank everyone who has joined her to create Marina Abramovic Institute with a personal hug.

THE EMBRACE will be held in two undisclosed locations, one in New York City and one in Europe, with exact dates and times to be announced. Founders who are unable to attend will be offered a special reward in lieu of a hug from Marina, to be revealed shortly.

The plan for MAI is to provide a space for "long-duration performance art" at a building in Hudson. A bunch of details about plans for MAI were posted online this past spring -- they're ambitious (the building design includes contributions from Rem Koolhaas) and, depending on your point of view, kind of bonkers (sleeping cocoons and a blood bank).

Picasso Baby: Inspired by Abramović's "The Artist is Present," Jay Z recently performed one of his songs for six straight hours at an art gallery in New York City. It was condensed to a video of about 10 minutes. [NYT] [Vulture]

Earlier on AOA:
+ Marina Abramović Institute Kickstarter
+ A peek at plans for the Marina Abramović Institute

(Thanks, colleen)

screengrab: Marina Abramović Institute Vimeo