Welcome to Midnight Art Club!

This week, we’re back to conceptual works, the kind that invite a bit of introspection. Brace yourselves: it’s not always easy to explain, and even harder to keep it out of the “bullshit” box. But I’m giving it a go anyway…

OUR SELECTION OF THIS WEEK’S NEWS

• Minneapolis: museums close after the death of Alex Pretti.
This time, the Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia) temporarily closed amid protests following the death of Alex Pretti, who was killed during a federal immigration agents operation. A clear, powerful symbol.

• Kennedy Center: cancellations keep coming since Trump’s takeover.
A number of artists have pulled their shows from the Kennedy Center since Donald Trump appointed himself chairman and reshuffled the board. The latest widely discussed cancellation: soprano Renée Fleming, presented by the institution as a “scheduling conflict.”

• Davos: Marina Abramović arrives with an immersive installation.
For the World Economic Forum, Abramović is presenting THE BUS, a bus turned into an experiential capsule, designed as a radical pause: slow down, stay silent, reconnect with what’s happening…

TO KNOW - Marina Abramović, the art of making you feel alive

Marina Abramović is the high priestess of performance art. She uses her body as material, and your presence as the trigger. Her works aren’t meant to be “looked at”, they’re meant to be lived.

Since the 1970s, she’s pushed her body and mind like a scientific experiment: how far can I go, and what does it awaken in you?

Her most “simple” work on the surface is also the one that pushed performance into pop culture: The Artist Is Present (MoMA, 2010). She sits in silence, and one person after another sits in front of her. Most of the time, they just stare, and yet…

© Marina Abramović

Here, Abramović doesn’t “perform” emotion. She creates the conditions for it to happen. She forces an intimate moment, clearly (because yes, looking straight into someone else’s eyes is intimidating), and she shows that even between strangers, you can feel things.

There’s a huge amount of humanity that comes out of this piece because, strangely enough, we’re moved by all these people crossing paths and locking eyes, exchanging smiles, tears, energies (yes, I believe in that, oops…). We don’t know what they’re thinking or feeling, and yet we want to help, to support, to watch.

It’s beautiful… but don’t worry, we come back to our senses pretty quickly after that…

In Davos, with The Bus, she’s doing the exact same thing: creating a space that slows us down, reconnects us to the present moment and to ourselves, and takes us on an “inner journey” that, paradoxically, becomes collective.

But let’s not forget she also worked for a long time in much more physical registers, sometimes genuinely dangerous. See for yourselves:

In Rhythm 0 (among others): she stands completely still while the audience can do anything with the objects laid out on a table, including a loaded gun. It starts gently, then it spirals. Someone puts the pistol to her head, someone else steps in and takes it away.

© Marina Abramović

There is also Lips of Thomas, where she pushes her body in an almost ritual way (whipping herself, cutting her skin, and other horrors), until the audience eventually intervenes.

© Marina Abramović

What connects all of this isn’t pain for pain’s sake: it’s the idea of the limit. The audience ends up stepping in. When do you move from spectator to actor?

Moral of the story: Abramović shows that a limit isn’t just a line you shouldn’t cross. It’s a place where you discover yourself.

THE GOSSIP - Silent Reunion

And then there’s that moment.

One day, during The Artist Is Present, in the middle of all these strangers, Ulay sits down. Ulay isn’t just an “ex.” He was her partner in life and in performance for years: a truly fused duo. Together they made works built on trust, tension, risk, on being two and somehow one. Their relationship was their material.
Even their breakup became a performance: they each started walking from opposite ends of the Great Wall of China, walked for weeks, and met in the middle to say goodbye. (Normal.)

So when he shows up at MoMA 22 years later, it’s not just a “surprise.” It’s a whole past sitting back down in front of her. She recognizes him and breaks down without moving: silent tears, a hand reaching out… incredibly moving.

You can watch the video of their reunion here.

In short, I really love her work because it often moves me and because it shows the brutality of human behavior, almost animal, without morality, without judgment.

THIS WEEK’S RECS

in New York:

• Museum: Grace Rosario Perkins: Circles, Spokes, Zigzags, Rivers, Whitney Museum, through February 8, 2026
  Dense paintings, full of signs and little scenes that appear when you slow down. And keep your eyes open: you might catch hidden details, like a small couple kissing (if you spot it, give me a sign).

• Gallery: Painting, Photography, Painting, Olney Gleason, through February 14, 2026
  Ten very restrained, almost monochrome paintings made of layered coats: up close you see the strata; from afar it becomes a clean, sharp surface.

in Paris:

• Museum: Exposition Générale, Fondation Cartier, through August 23, 2026
  At their new space, 2 place du Palais-Royal. I was thrilled to discover it: this group show immediately gives you a strong sense of the Fondation’s spirit. I loved certain works, especially James Coleman, and connected less with others, like Bill Viola, whose wall text (in my opinion) didn’t do it any favors. Tell me what you thought!

• Gallery: Titus Kaphar: The Fire This Time, Gagosian, Rue de Ponthieu space, Opening Thursday, January 29, 6–8pm
  His first show in Paris: new paintings and sculptures, with his very direct way of “rewriting” history through images, showing what gets hidden, cut out, or erased. I’ll be there, and I can’t wait to see you!

to watch:

• Vidéo : Marina Abramović & Ulay, The Artist Is Present (MoMA, 2010)
  Sorry to insist, but it’s only three minutes and you’ll understand why we’re still talking about it fifteen years later!!!

See you next week… same day, same time!

Juliette,

To get in touch : info.midnightartclub@gmail.com

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