Woman Lets Audience Do Things to Her for Art

In 1979 Marina Abramovic, an as yet unknown performance artist living in Soviet Russia, created one of the virtually controversial, fascinating, and dangerous performance pieces in art history. She called information technology Rhythm 0, and information technology was as much a work of daring contemporary art every bit it was a massive social experiment that pulled the veil on man nature, and laid bare the consequences of leaving ourselves, our bodies and our lives in the hands of strangers.

For six hours, she put her life and torso completely in the hands of strangers, turning herself into an object to be used, every bit one wished. During this time she agreed to remain passive, and unresponsive until the experiment was over. Abramovic decided that she would just quietly and limply observe. For the audience, there were no immediate consequences.

At first, but photographers were going near her.

The premise of "Rhythm 0" was deceptively unproblematic: Abramovic would stand however for six hours straight while the people who came to come across her were urged to do whatever they wanted to her using ane of 72 objects that she had placed on a table.

Abramovic 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 equally desired.

Functioning.

I am the object.

During this catamenia I take full responsibility.

Duration: 6 hours (eight pm – 2 am)

Among the things on the tabular array were "objects of pleasure" and "objects of destruction." Among the harmless objects were feathers and flowers. The unsafe stuff included a knife, razor blades, and a loaded gun.

In that location were those who inverse her position.

What happened in the side by side half-dozen hours was horrifying, to say the least.

"In the kickoff the public was actually very much playing with me," remembers the artist. They were gentle, placing a rose in her paw, kissing her and feeding her cake. Only then, "it became more and more wild" as the public became increasingly aggressive. "It was six hours of real horror," says Abramovic solemnly, "They would cut my clothes, they would cut me with a pocketknife close to my neck, potable my blood and put a plaster over the wound. They would carry me effectually half naked put me on the table and stab the knife between my legs into the forest."

They took the scissors off the tabular array and cut off all her dress, one man tried to rape her, another loaded the pistol with the bullet and pointed information technology at her caput. A dark at the gallery turned into a horror testify. "Information technology was a really difficult piece," she explains, "considering I just stood in that location in forepart of the table" while the public continued their assail.

Anyone who knew the artist could have predicted how far the operation might go. Marina was known to exist completely committed to her craft. So committed, in fact, that she would have let audience members have her life if information technology ever got to that indicate. "There was a pistol with 1 bullet, then basically if the audition wanted to put the bullet in the pistol they could kill me. And I actually wanted to take this run a risk, I wanted to know what the public is about, and what they are going to exercise in this kind of state of affairs."

"After vi hours, which was like 2 in the morning, the gallerists came and announced that the performance was over. I started moving and outset existence myself, because until then I was there like a boob only for them, and at that moment everybody ran abroad. People could not confront me equally a person."

These were regular people who probably set out to meet a piece of work of art that evening, but ended up torturing the artist. The moment she went from passive object to active agent, the audience was horrified to recall that they had been dealing with a human being all along. They could non confront the traces of torture they left behind on her trunk, as she walked towards them dripping with blood and tears.

Subsequently it was all over, Abramovic had this to say subsequently the performance: "What I learned was that… if you lot leave it up to the audience, they can kill you…I felt actually violated." It is a terrifying yet fascinating lesson in the consequences of passivity.

Listen to Marina Abramovic talk about her frightening experience.

Abramovic noted:

"This piece of work reveals something terrible about humanity. It shows how fast a person can injure you nether favorable circumstances. It shows how easy it is to dehumanize a person who does not fight, who does not defend himself. Information technology shows that if he provides the phase, the majority of 'normal' people, apparently can become truly violent."

campbellthole1960.blogspot.com

Source: https://cavemancircus.com/2017/08/10/performance-artist-stood-still-6-hours-let-people-wanted-body/

Share this post