The artist's collaboration with Jay Z for his "Picasso Baby" video wasn't all kosher, it seems.
UPDATE, MAY 20: The Abramović Institute has issued an apology to Jay Z.
In a new interview with Spike Art Magazine, Marina Abramović has a few choice words about her involvement with Jay Z's much revered "Picasso Baby" video.
It seems the performance artist is regretting it all even happened, claiming that Jay used her for his own gain and never helped out with her performance art educational institute—something he allegedly promised that he'd do during negotiations for the video.
"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," Abramović said in the interview.
"The day before, he came to my office and I gave him an entire power point presentation and said: okay, you can help me, because I really need help to build this thing. Then he just completely used me. And that wasn’t fair," she explained. "And in the end it was only a one-way transaction. I will never do it again, that I can say. Never. I was really naive in this kind of world. It was really new to me, and I had no idea that this would happen. It’s so cruel, it’s incredible. I will stay away from it for sure."
Not to say that Abramović is upset about any of her other superstar collaborations: She still had nice things to say about Lady Gaga, who stripped down for Abramović's video The Abramovic Method: "This is very different from Lady Gaga, for example, who has done great work for me. Just by having 45 million followers, she brought all these young kids into my public," she said.
In the summer of 2013, Jay Z performed "Picasso Baby" for six hours at the Pace Gallery in New York City to a sea of onlookers, including a few celebrity friends. The event was recorded and condensed into a music video, which you can view above. The concept was inspired by Abramović's 2010 installation, The Artist Is Present, where she logged 736 hours with MoMA visitors who waited for their chances for an emotional, one-on-one, sit-down experience with her.
