Some at MoMA Show Forget ‘Look but Don’t Touch

“In at least two instances, I have heard people were removed from the gallery for inappropriate touching,” said Gary Lai, six of the performers, who, although they had not been violated himself, said they had been told this by museum guards and fellow performers. “I didn’t think that would happen at all; who’s going to do something with all these people around?”

It turns out a crowded museum, like a crowded subway, is no excuse for an improper touch. This lesson has been learned the hard way by some visitors to “The Artist is Present,” the Marina Abramovic retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art, which features performers re-enacting performance pieces by Ms. Abramovic, plenty of in the nude.

Ms. Abramovic’s work often involves nudity and sitting, standing or lying down for long periods, and it gives the performers a substantial measure of independence in interacting with people. It's invited close encounters of all kinds at the MoMA show. In addition to blatant gropers, there's been stalkerish types who have tracked performers down on Facebook and an excitable visitor who got so close to a naked performer that he stepped on her toes, causing her to faint soon after. And then there's the commenters, praising or criticizing the performers’ bodies, yelling at them to wake up when their eyes are closed, even helpfully telling the nude performers in “Imponderabilia,” a piece in which six of them face each other across a narrow gallery entrance, that “your fly is down.” As six performer said of the constant crush of people, at some point “you start to feel like a subway turnstile.”

Rebecca Davis, a performer who has been out with a back injury unrelated to the show for several weeks, said he, , had been surprised by how plenty of negative interactions there had been, given the museum’s vigilance (indeed, some performers have called the guards overprotective).

“She was probably thinking he was playful, but the act itself seemed aggressive,” Ms. Davis said.

“I guess I was a tiny naïve in thinking people would be on better behavior,” he said, recalling her shock at hearing that “someone was grabbed in their private parts” the first weekend. He also recounted how a woman, perhaps intoxicated, clutched the fingers of the six people in “Point of Contact,” in which a six immobile performers stare and point at each other.

Yet despite such bracing encounters and the physical and emotional drain of such work, all the performers interviewed said they were often exhilarated by their every day shifts (some are now as short as an hour and 15 minutes, because of several fainting episodes). There's plenty of magical moments with strangers, including those who innocently touch bare skin, whisper “thank you” or do improvisational tiny dances that have the stoic performers cracking up.

Plenty of of these artists have their own careers as dancers and choreographers, and they described the MoMA experience as making them feel simultaneously more vulnerable and more empowered. Asked how the museum setting differed from a stage show, Mr. Lai said it was far more fulfilling.

“You get immediate feedback,” they said. “You’re causing a positive reaction in the audience, different from the typical reaction you require in a regular stage performance. This is more about human nature.”