Jay Z and Mark Romanek Pay Homage to Marina Abramovic in Performance Art Film

Serbian performance artist Marina Abramovic continues to inspire her fellow creatives. Earlier this year, we saw director Nabil's Cannes New Director's showcase-winning video for Antony and the Johnsons' "Cut the World," a song originally written for director Robert Wilson's opera "The Life and Death of Marina Abramovic." Her renowned MoMa piece "The Artist is Present," also inspired one of writer/director Jun Diaz' CFDA short films. The most recent artists to pay homage to her and that specific piece were rapper Jay Z and director Mark Romanek, whose "Picasso Baby: A Performance Art Film" was aired on HBO on Friday, August 2. The 10-minute film is a condensed version of the music artist's six-hour rapping marathon at the Pace Gallery before a star-studded audience. Attendees, who included Abramovic herself, were individually regaled with the lyrics of "Picasso Baby," the rapper's Timbaland-produced song from his recently released album "Magna Carta Holy Grail." It was a reunion, of sorts for Jay Z and Romanek, having previously worked together on Jay Z's "99 Problems" video.

Jay Z and Mark Romanek Pay Homage to Marina Abramovic in Performance Art Film

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