The Images Festival kicked off yesterday with Babette Mangolte's documentary -- or rather "filmed performance art" -- Seven Easy Pieces by Marina Abramovic. The film is essentially a record -- and a beautifully shot one at that -- of Marina Abramovic's seven day performance (one piece a day, seven hours each) at the Guggenheim Museum where she re-enacted past works by artists Bruce Nauman, Vito Acconci, Valie Export, Gina Pane and Joseph Beuys.

Trying, stimulating, and even humourous at times, Seven Easy Pieces probably won't do much to help you understand performance art, but like dance or like synchronous swimming it makes you appreciate -- even admire -- what the human body and even its most minimal physicalities can communicate... especially when it's stripped naked and laid on top of a crucifix made of ice. Take a second to appreciate that! This of course was one of the seven "passionate" performances, and probably the most difficult one to get through, yet it was also the most fascinating for its variety of props and somewhat decipherable meaning. Or at least I tried.

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If you're interested but missed it, a second screening has been added:
Sunday April 8th, 4:30 pm @ The Royal. Tickets available online (http://imagesfestival.com) or at the Joseph Workman Theatre.

(Photo: Images Festival)