Performance Artist Marina Abramović Says Rapper Jay Z 'Completely Used' Her for ‘Picasso Baby’ Project
In the summer of 2013, rapper Jay Z adapted the work of Serbian performance artist Marina AbramoviÄ for the music video to his track "Picasso Baby."
The six-hour performance happened at the Pace gallery in New York. While AbramoviÄ participated -- she's even in the music video -- she now says that Jay Z "used" her.
AbramoviÄ performed her work "The Artist Is Present" in the collaboration with Jay Z in which she touched foreheads with the rapper while holding his gaze and sat across a table from members of the public, holding their gaze.
AbramoviÄ told Spike Magazine that Jay Z requested to adapt her work into his project three years after "The Artist is Present" had been staged at MoMA. The two met, discussed the project and agreed on terms.
When Spike brought up her participation in the "Picasso Baby" music video, AbramoviÄ said, "Yes, but there was one reason for this that I can't talk about. I am very pissed by this, since he adapted my work only under one condition: that he would help my institute, which he didn't."
AbramoviÄ, who has worked with recording artists before on projects, said Lady Gaga, for example, helped her greatly by bringing young people to her institute.
"He just completely used me. And that wasn't fair," she said of Jay Z.
For the video, Jay Z riffed on AbramoviÄ's work by sitting opposite a row of celebrities, including Jim Jarmusch and Adam Driver.
While AbramoviÄ said she doesn't regret the decision to work with Jay Z, the experience left her feeling used and disappointed.
"In the end it was only a one-way transaction. I will never do it again, that I can say. Never," she said.
AbramoviÄ's retrospective "The Artist is Present" has been the subject of an HBO documentary. It was on view at New York's Museum of Modern Art in 2010 where she sat in a chair in the museum's atrium, gazing intently in silence, as audience members came, one by one, to sit opposite her and make eye contact.
AbramoviÄ has two major shows in Australia where the media describes her as being "like the Beatles" due to the excitement of her fans.
* This is a contributed article and this content does not necessarily represent the views of latinpost.com