Performing Affect: Marina Abramović and the Politics of Emotion

The ‘affective turn’ refers to a resurgence of scholarly interest in feelings, emotions, and sensory perceptions, along with their political, sociocultural, and economic implications. This chapter provides an overview of some key conceptual perspectives within this shift towards affect, which has reshaped social and cultural theory in the twenty-first century. It accomplishes this by tracing three pivotal theoretical trajectories, all originating from feminist thought: 1) the epistemological criticism of the Cartesian dualism between body and mind; 2) the evolution from social constructionist theories of subjectivity and identity towards a new materialist ontology of affect; and 3) the critical analysis of the role of emotion in shaping contemporary notions of culture. The chapter discusses prominent authors in affect studies, including Sara Ahmed, Teresa Brennan, and Brian Massumi, with a particular focus on Massumi’s distinction between affect, as a non-conscious bodily intensity, and emotion. Its primary aim is to demonstrate how feminist studies of affect and emotion can foster new insights into the workings of contemporary art. To this end, it examines the affective dynamics of Marina Abramović’s long-durational performance piece The Artist Is Present, staged at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 2010. By blending theoretical reflection with autoethnographic writing, the chapter elucidates the profound emotional resonance the performance evoked in its audience, while simultaneously highlighting its affective potency as a corporeal, relational, energetic, and transformative event.