The Extraordinary Power of Prolonged Eye Gazing
I invited strangers from all over the world to look into each other’s eyes for five full minutes
The sun is about to set in Fukushima, Japan, and I am sitting on the top floor of an old building that used to be a primary school. In front of me, 10 adults sit on the floor with their eyes closed, facing each other in pairs.
They are all waiting for my sign. When the gong rings, they will open their eyes and stare at their partner for five minutes. No words, no movements, no looking away: just presence.
‘The Artist Is Present’
In 2010, Marina Abramović held an exhibition at the New York Museum of Modern Art called The Artist Is Present.
What made this event unique among Abramović’s performances was that she sat in a chair for a total of 736.5 hours, inviting each member of the public, one by one, to sit in front of her and look into her eyes for a few minutes.
The results? People queued outside the museum overnight to sit in that chair. When they finally did, there were tears and laughter. One woman took it even further by suddenly and confidently removing all her clothes on the spot (and was immediately removed by security).
