Marina Abramovic Coming to Hudson

It's official. The press release came out this evening. On Sunday, August 12, at 11 a.m., during the Hudson Music Festival, there is to be an open house at the future Marina Abramovic Institute for the Preservation of Performance Art, at the corner of Columbia and Seventh streets. Marina Abramovic herself will be there, as will Serge Le Borgne, the institute director, to introduce to the public to their plans for the institute in a ninety-minute presentation that will include model renderings.

The press release says this of the building that will become the Marina Abramovic Institute:

Built in 1929, this 20,000 square foot building has stood quiet for almost five years and will soon see life again. This former theater, which later became an indoor tennis court, then an antiques warehouse and market before falling into disrepair. Abramovic bought the theater in 2007. . . .

On August 12, the doors will open at 11:00 a.m. with presentations and a visual virtual tour of the design concepts. A question-and-answer period will follow. The building will then remain open during the afternoon and concluding at 5:00 p.m.

A lot of tidying up will have to be done if there is to be an open house in the building two weeks from now. A Gossips reader who is often in the vicinity of the building submitted these pictures of the area under the portico, with a dead pigeon and lots of pigeon droppings, and the sidewalk along the side of the building, thick with weeds.