In 1974, an artist gave the public free rein over her body for six hours. What happened next left her feeling ‘ready to die.’
Marina Abramović is a Serbian conceptual and performance artist whose work explores the limits of the body, the possibilities of the mind and the relationship between the artist and their audience.
For her most famous performance, named ‘Rhythm 0,’ Abramović placed 72 objects on a table that spectators could use on her however they desired.
She would not move for six hours and no matter what the public chose to do to her, she said she would take ‘full responsibility.’
The 72 objects ranged from things like flowers, perfume and apples to more sinister items like razors and knives.
During Marina Abramović’s ‘Rhythm 0,’ she allowed the public to do whatever they wanted to her without any consequences (Marina Abramović Institute/YouTube)
At first, the audience were tame in their response to the task. Some simply watched the artist as she stood still. Others handed her roses and held her hands.
But, things took a dark turn part way through the performance as people realised there were no limits to their actions.
By the end of the six hours, Abramović had been stripped of her clothing and a knife had been stuck between her legs.
Harrowing photos taken at the time show the artist crying.
Other reports say that Abramović – who has been hailed as ‘one of the most significant artists of the second half of the 20th century’ – ended up with a loaded gun to her head, sparking people to step in and end the performance.
In an interview on the Marina Abramović Institute YouTube channel, she called the piece ‘really difficult.’
As the performance went on, the public’s actions became more extreme, leaving the artist in tears (Marina Abramović Institute/YouTube)
“At the beginning, nothing really happened,” she reflected. “The public were really nice. They gave me a rose, they would kiss me, look at me, and the public became more and more wild.”
Speaking about what happened when the performance finally came to an end, she went on: “I start moving. I start being myself […] and, at that moment, everybody ran away. People could not actually confront with me as a person.”
She added: “The experience I drew from this piece was that in your own performances you can go very far, but if you leave decisions to the public, you can be killed.”
Further reflecting on this in a 2014 interview with the Guardian, Abramović said she was ‘ready to die’.
“I had a pistol with bullets in it, my dear. I was ready to die,” she told the newspaper.
She went on to say that she felt ‘lucky’ that she lived to tell the tale.
