Annie Walton Doyle
An artist who allowed spectators to do anything they wished to her has revealed the moment it all went wrong.
Serbian-born Marina Abramović is well known for pushing the boundaries of both human endurance and artistic expression.
Throughout her extensive career, Abramović has subjected herself to physically and mentally grueling challenges, all in the pursuit of art.
From cutting herself on stage to engaging in silent eye contact with strangers for hours, Abramović’s work often provokes reactions ranging from shock to deep reflection.
One of her most intense performances occurred in 1974, when she gave the public complete freedom to act upon her body for six hours.
The outcome was alarming, and the experience left Abramović reflecting on the exact moment everything went wrong.
In this performance, Abramović stood still beside a table filled with 72 objects that ranged from innocuous items like feathers to dangerous tools like scissors and even a loaded gun.
Her instructions were stark: the audience could use any of the objects on her however they wished, while she remained passive and unresisting.
She later reflected on the experience, saying, “I had a pistol with bullets in it, my dear. I was ready to die,” as reported by The Guardian.
At the start, the audience was hesitant, seemingly unnerved by the weight of their freedom over her. Initial interactions were gentle – some handed her flowers, others posed her like a mannequin.
But gradually, the atmosphere darkened.
As time passed, the lack of consequences and Abramović’s complete vulnerability emboldened darker behaviors.
Some tore her clothes, others cut her skin with sharp objects, and one even pointed the loaded pistol at her head.
“I still have scars from where people were cutting me,” she recalled. “They were taking the thorn from the rose and sticking it in my stomach. The public can kill you. This is what I wanted to see.”
The performance morphed into a disturbing social experiment, highlighting how quickly societal norms can disintegrate when boundaries are removed.
The distinction between onlookers and participants became unclear, and as the crowd’s aggression escalated, they began feeding off each other’s actions.
After six harrowing hours, the performance concluded. Abramović, now bloodied and tearful, began to move, and the audience – confronted with the reality of what they had done – fled the gallery in horror, according to the Marina Abramović Institute.
This performance exposed the unsettling depths of human nature when offered complete freedom without accountability.
Her artistic mission, centered around endurance and vulnerability, has always been about more than just spectacle.
As Abramović herself often says, ‘the medium is the body,’ emphasizing that her performances are explorations of pain, endurance, and human connection.
Abramović’s reasons for subjecting herself to such risks are as thought-provoking as her work itself.
She believes that by confronting one’s deepest fears, personal growth can be achieved: “When you’re afraid of something, face it, go for it. You become a better human being,” she says.
In Rhythm 0, this philosophy was pushed to its limits. The brutal behavior of the audience brought her to a profound realization: she had been willing to risk death for her art.
The performance was not only a test of her resilience but also a stark demonstration of how easily compassion and cruelty can emerge when people are given unchecked power.
Abramović, now 77, reflected on her 1974 performance during her interview on the Marina Abramović Institute’s YouTube channel, saying: “At the beginning, nothing really happened. The public was really nice.”
As the performance progressed, spectators’ actions turned increasingly violent.
Abramović later shared that the shift occurred when the audience realized there were no consequences for their behavior.
By the end of the performance, the audience had divided into two groups—those who sought to protect Abramović and those who wanted to harm her.
A fight erupted when a loaded gun was aimed at her head, though it remains unclear whether this incident marked the end of the performance or if the six hours simply elapsed.
Regardless, Abramović revealed disturbing insights about human nature, remarking: “What I learned was that… if you leave it up to the audience, they can kill you.”
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