NEW YORK - A young contemporary dancer named Will Rawls was working at his current production, the Marina Abramovic performance art retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art. Specifically, he was standing naked in a gallery entrance, facing a naked woman, as museumgoers passed through the narrow space between them. It was a re-enactment of “Imponderabilia,” a well-known piece originally performed by Ms. Abramovic and a partner in the 1970s.

Out of the corner of his eye, Mr. Rawls noticed an older man preparing to walk through.

“He proceeded to slide his hand onto my ribs and back and then touched my butt,” Mr. Rawls said. “As he was passing me he looked me in the eyes and said, ‘You feel good, man.’ ”

“I just turned and looked at the security guard and said, ‘This man is touching me.’ Then I looked back at my partner and left it at that.”

When his shift was over, Mr. Rawls said, he learned from a security official that MoMA had revoked the man’s 30-year membership and barred him from returning to the museum. (The museum would not comment on specific incidents, but issued a statement saying that “any visitor who improperly touches or disturbs” a performer will be removed.) It’s a lesson that has been learned the hard way by some visitors to the retrospective, “The Artist Is Present.”

Ms. Abramovic’s work has invited close encounters of all kinds at the MoMA exhibition. And the show has made fascinated spectators out of the performers themselves, who have generally enjoyed being part of it, despite undeniable challenges.

Mr. Rawls, for example, said that standing with his arms at his side he had felt more erections “across the back of my hand than I can count,” and Kennis Hawkins, also an “Imponderabilia” performer, described a visitor surreptitiously taking waisthigh pictures of her and her partner in the piece on a recent weekend. (Photography is forbidden.) Another day, she added, an excitable visitor in high heels got so engaged in watching another performer that she backed onto Ms. Hawkins’s toes, causing her to faint soon after.

Then there are the stalkerish types, who have tracked down performers on Facebook. Not to mention the commenters, praising or criticizing the performers’ bodies or yelling at them to wake up when their eyes are closed.

Rebecca Davis, a performer who has been out for several weeks with a back injury unrelated to the show, said she, too, had been surprised by the number of unsuitable gestures. She recalled her shock at hearing that “someone was grabbed in their private parts” the first weekend of the show, and recounted how a woman, perhaps intoxicated, clutched the fingers of the two people in “Point of Contact,” in which two immobile performers stare and point at each other.

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

Ms. Davis also said that the museum had been extremely vigilant in its efforts to protect them. (Some performers called the guards overzealous, even as they expressed gratitude.)

In a brief statement, the museum’s communications department stressed that untoward incidents have been few and far between during the run of what it described as a heavily trafficked show. MoMA, the statement added, is “well aware of the challenges posed by having nude performers in the galleries,” and “discussions took place between MoMA’s security staff and Marina Abramovic and the performers to ensure that the performers would be comfortable in the galleries at all times.”

And despite the physical and emotional discomfort of these encounters - and the draining nature of the work - all the performers interviewed said they were often exhilarated by their daily shifts (some of which are now as short as an hour 15 minutes, because of several fainting episodes). There are plenty of magical moments with strangers, including those who innocently touch bare skin, whisper “thank you” or do improvisational little dances that have the usually stoic performers laughing.

Many 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, Gary Lai said it was far more fulfilling.

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


By CLAUDIA LA ROCCO


SUZANNE DeCHILLO/THE NEW YORK TIMES
In a Marina Abramovic retrospective at the Museum of Modern
Art, visitors can pass between two nude performers, making
for some close and embarrassing encounters.