© Linda Nylind/The Guardian'It's a big risk, that's why I'm terrified,' says Abramović. Serbian artist hopes Friday's 'public intervention' will make festival goers reflect on the current state of the world
"I am terrified," said Abramović, whose performance pieces have made her one of the most famous artists in the world.
Comment: Which says more about the state of the world, or at least the self-appointed culture creators. Because Abramović's other performances include throwing human waste over child-like dolls, and eating blood-coloured goo from around a partially submerged naked person, who has been made to look like a dead body in a funerary casket.
"I don't know any visual artists who have done something like this in front of 175,000 to 200,000 people. The largest audience I ever had was 6,000 people in a stadium and I was thinking 'wow', but this is really beyond anything I've done."
Abramović, who is calling the event a "public intervention" rather than a performance, will address the crowd from the Pyramid stage at 5.55pm, just before PJ Harvey's set, and then ask the crowd to be quiet as part of a piece she's calling Seven Minutes of Collective Silence.
Comment: It's unlikely to be a coincidence that in numerology 5+5+5=15, and 1+5=6, and the clock will also strike 6 during her performance, nor that she's chosen the Pyramid stage - despite being the largest stage - on which to do it. There are other elements one could find, but you get the (rather inane) point.
That might seem far-fetched, but as her own work and words reveal, these aspects are incredibly important to her, and her supporters, for some reason:
Comment: Footage of the stunt is up:
See also: Royal Household Calvary horses bolt through London after throwing riders off, just as Big Ben clock 'stops working'
Whilst not exactly the same, one recalls another recent performance at Davos: