The smart phone is present | The Salt Lake Tribune

This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

The New York Times is offering a substantial Sundance article, with pictures, about the "Silence is Golden Party" thrown by performance artist Marina Abramovic. http://nyti.ms/A9d9WN

Everyone at the party donned white lab coats and headsets and were forbidden to talk or use cell phones. A raging snow storm outside only enhanced the effect.

Abramovic, who is the subject of "Marina Abramovic: The Artist is Present," wanted us all to live in the moment without being distracted from the projections on the gallery walls of the faces of the people who had sat opposite her during her famous installation at the MOMA in New York.

Unfortunately, many of the guests could not part with what has become a vital organ to most humans—smart phones.

Thus, instead of a gallery filled with people in white silently witnessing her images, Abramovic got a gallery of people holding up phones to take each other's pictures—apparently documenting their brief moment "in the moment."

— Glen Warchol

Your last chance to catch "Marina Abramovic: The Artist is Present" is 9:30 tonight at the Redstone Cinema in Kimball Junction.