Artist 'ready to die' after letting spectators do anything to her made major admission about stunt more than 45 years later
A performance artist who once felt 'ready to die' after an extreme stunt, which allowed spectators to do anything they wanted to her, has since made a major admission about the piece.
Allowing random members of the public to do whatever they wanted to your body for six hours sounds like the stuff of nightmares to most of us. However, for Marina Abramović, this was a stunt in which she willingly participated in.
Titled 'Rhythm 0', the 1974 six-hour long endurance art performance saw Abramović stand in-front of a table containing 72 different items.
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The premise of the experiment was simple: how far would a person go in a situation where they faced no consequences to their actions?
Well, turns out people are willing to take things pretty far.
The performance is said to have started out rather peacefully, with spectators handing Abramović a rose, turning her around.
However, things would later take a pretty sinister turn.
As the six-hour experiment rolled on, more people grew bold in what they were willing to do, with spectators stripping the artist of her clothes, while others cut at her skin with razor blades.
By the end of the performance, art critic Thomas McEvilley recalled a fight breaking out among spectators after a loaded gun was pointed at the artist's head as other viewers rushed to defend her.
Abramović would later sum the whole performance up in pretty chilling terms, telling The Guardian during a 2014 interview that she was even 'ready to die' at certain points.
"I had a pistol with bullets in it, my dear. I was ready to die, she reflected. Fortunately Abramović would walk away from the performance with her life, as well as a deeper understanding about the true darkness of human nature.
"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," she said of the piece in a separate interview.
Considering how close she came to death the first time round, you'd imagine that Abramović wouldn't be rushing to repeat the performance anytime soon - however, this is surprisingly not the case.
During a more recent interview, the artist revealed that she was not only willing to re-perform Rhythm 0, but had also hoped to take the piece to America.
However, there would turn out to be a few legal issues involved.
"I actually want to repeat this performance," she said.
"They didn't give it to me, all the lawyers went crazy... You see in America they're really going to use it [the objects]."
Perhaps it was a blessing in disguise the stunt wasn't allowed then.
Topics: Art, Community, History, Marina Abramović
Brenna Cooper