Marina Abramovic is a Yugoslavian performance artist who was hailed as the “grandmother of performance art.” She has been staging thought-provoking interactive installations for more than 40 years.
One of her earliest performances is still being talked about today. She staged a performance piece called “Rhythm 0” at Studio Morra in Naples, Italy.
At first, only photographers were going near Abramovic.
The premise of “Rhythm 0” was deceptively simple: Abramovic would stand still for six hours straight while the people who came to see her were urged to do whatever they wanted to her using one of 72 objects that she had placed on a table. Among the things on the table were “objects of pleasure” and “objects of destruction.” Among the harmless objects were feathers and flowers. The dangerous stuff included a knife, razor blades, and a loaded gun.
The performance artist stood in the middle of the room with a notice board containing these words:
Instructions.
There are 72 objects on the table that one can use on me as desired.
Performance.
I am the object.
During this period I take full responsibility.
Duration: 6 hours (8 pm – 2 am)
Some people made her sit down so they could humiliate her.
There were those who changed her position.
Here’s what happened in the next 6 hours:
There were people who liked to attach things to her.
Art critic Thomas McEvilley who observed the performance related:
“It began tamely. Someone turned her around. Someone thrust her arms into the air. Someone touched her somewhat intimately.”
One man used a razor to make a cut on her neck.
Then, as McEvilley went on to disclose,
“In the third hour, all her clothes were cut from her with razor blades. In the fourth hour, the same blades began to explore her skin. Various minor sexual assaults were carried out on her body.
In the last two hours, someone made her point a gun at herself.
Abramovic’s own account of what the people did to her was even more heartbreaking.
She recalled: “I felt raped, they cut off the clothes, they stuck me with thorns of rose in the stomach, aimed the gun to my head, another came apart.”
Some men undressed her and groped her.
After six hours, Abramovic started to walk among the people. They couldn’t look her in the face.
The violence and sexual harassment escalated.
Abramovic observed that people didn’t
want any sort of confrontation with her. They didn’t want to be held accountable or judged for what they did. It seemed as if they wanted to forget how they relished hurting her.
Watch the video below…
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