Marina Abramović Unmoved by Brazil’s Crying World Cup Fans

Like the rest of the world, the denizens of artland have caught the World Cup bug. You probably don’t need any proof of that, but in case you did, behold “Marina Abramović Made Brazil Cry.” And no, the anonymous author of this satirical Tumblr is not referring to the performance art grande dame’s recent World Cup-themed collaboration with Adidas, which made many in the art world cry. From confusion.

A typically off-the-cuff bit of Tumblr commentary, “Marina Abramović Made Brazil Cry” takes pictures of Brazilians reacting with unfiltered grief to their team’s colossal 7-1 drubbing at the hands of Germany on Tuesday, and sets them opposite the immobile visage of Abramović from her iconic The Artist Is Present performance during her MoMA retrospective.

For those not following the art meme beat, this is an in-joke about an in-joke: the gesture is an homage to another satirical Tumblr, “Marina Abramović Made Me Cry,” which took Marco Anelli’s online archives of people participating in Abramovic’s stare-off, and then selected only the images of people bursting into tears.

“Marina Abramovic Made Brazil Cry” is only the latest Abramović-themed web project. Just last week, bored art fans were chuckling at an Abramović meme that pretended that her visage was being used in ad campaigns for Theraflu and pain-killers. And let’s not forget the satirical site for The Marina Abramović Retirement Fund of America, which claims to be collecting donations to encourage the ultra-overexposed artist to cease art-making altogether.

As for the “Brazil” part of the “Marina Abramović Made Brazil Cry,” for those looking for commentary with a little more bite, I recommend Dave Zirin’s piece for The Nation, “Losing to Germany Wasn’t Actually the Worst Thing to Happen to Brazil This World Cup.” Or just the tweet below:

Twitter post by @ichlugebullets