Tune in for an energising musical response to Marina Abramović: Gates and Portals.
DJ, musician and Modern Art Oxford Visitor Engagement Assistant, Martin Andrews currently works in Marina Abramović’s exhibition. For his role as an Exhibition Facilitator, Martin is trained in “The Abramović Method,” a synthesis of Marina Abramovic’s research and experience spanning her 50-year career, and an exploration of being present in both time and space.
This September, we invited Martin (a.k.a DJ Octavia Freud) to provide music to accompany the opening night of Marina Abramovic’s show, a unique musical response he’s now shared with us.
Discover the resulting DJ mix and playlist below, along with Martin’s account of the recent experiences that inspired it.
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I was asked by Modern Art Oxford to DJ at Marina Abramovic’s opening party for her exhibition Gates and Portals. The same week I attended three days of ‘The Abramović Method’ training, taking place at the gallery to prepare for working as a facilitator in the exhibition. This involved completing endurance tasks for eight hours a day whilst fasting and remaining silent. The tasks are designed to help artists develop their durational performance practice. I have been making music, DJ-ing and performing on stage for the last 20 years so I was intrigued but also sceptical about how walking very slowly across a room for an hour, opening and shutting a door for two hours, staring into someone’s eyes or separating rice from lentils could benefit my practice. The first chance I would get to perform after completing the training would be my DJ set.
After finishing each day of Method training I immersed myself in music, thought about the artist and what her work represented and how I could respond through my musical choices. I gravitated towards cosmic ambient sounds that reflected the slow, intense repetition and transcendental nature of the training and a higher state of consciousness. I also felt an opposite darker energy in Marina’s work and the nature of the long training exercises, that for some felt like punishment and pain. In my musical mind this was represented by gothic industrial noises and chants.
When the evening arrived I began my set and the public rushed into the Café space. I could feel a strong energy of expectation build in the room as all eyes were on me. My plan was to play slow, intense waves of sounds that would hold onto this energy without offering a chance of release before the moment Marina would speak. As a performer, all you are interested in is the energy in the room between yourself and audience. In this case it wasn’t me the audience were waiting to hear from, it was Marina, but I was determined to match this moment with my own musical performance. I began to build up layers of sound, mixing in drums and chants and then after about two hours a really strange thing happened. Spontaneously, I began to act out the slow deliberate movements of the Method. I walked away from the decks and held my hands out in front of me, watching my palms as they moved across my line of vision. Then I turned my back to the audience and faced the wall and stared as long as I could while the music continued to play. I was at one with the music, the audience and the Method and I was completely in the zone. Finally, it was time for Marina to speak.
‘A DJ’s response to Gates and Portals’ is a recreation of the mix played by Octavia Freud at Modern Art Oxford, at the exhibition opening of Marina Abramović: Gates and Portals (Friday 23 September 2022.)
Octavia Freud’s latest album, ‘Land Ahoy’ is out now. Discover more:
octaviafreud.bandcamp.com
octaviafreud.com
Discover more about Marina Abramović: Gates and Portals by clicking here.