Everything is about repetition, I know, life itself is about repetition, but do we need even more of it? Recently, it seems that a few artists have been trying to put more repetition in their performance, and honestly I don’t find this to be a very seductive idea. Who wants to hear the same National’s song for 6 hours? Nevertheless, this is what the band did last May at MOMA PS1. And now it’s Jay-Z’s turn! He got the same idea for some reason, and has been rapping the same song, ‘Picasso Baby’ from his last album ‘Magna Carta Holy Grail’, for six hours on Wednesday at Pace Gallery in New York. Why?
Apparently his performance is going to be used to make a video for the song, but there is another attention there, an intention about repetition, and about performing his song in a place where art is shown, may be he wants to elevate rap to a classic art status? The cover of his album seems to say so, plus, in this album, he drops more art-related words than a Madison avenue art collector. He compares himself to Picasso, Da Vinci, Jean Michel Basquiat and talks about Tate, MoMa and Christie’s auction house. With his usual humbleness, he has announced on Twitter he has been working for ‘6 pieces of art’ referring to 6 videos for the album… And to be sure these videos are gonna be real pieces of art, he is performing them in an art gallery? This makes sense, actually.
But six hours is very long, I see this more like a show based on endurance rather than art. The funny thing is that performance artist Marina Abramovic was watching him, and if you have seen the documentary made about her, ‘The Artist is Present’, you will understand why she can relate! This woman sat down for 736 hours, completely static, like a silent piece in the museum’s atrium, while spectators were invited to take turns sitting opposite her! I watched it a while ago, and I still haven’t got it… people were lining up to see this woman stay immobile for hours, some were even crying? I don’t know if anyone was crying at Jay-Z’s performance but at least he was rapping! The title of her movie (the artist is present) is at least as pedantic as anything Jay-Z has ever said in his rap songs, so no wonder these two found each other…
Hopefully, his 5 other videos will be more fun, I mean less ladies who stare and more holy grail? But watching this video found on Youtube, he wasn’t the only one performing!