I was introduced to Marina Abramovic’s work about two years ago. I’ve always appreciated her art, but for the past two weeks, her performances are all that I think about! I might just be writing my next paper on her…

Marina Abramovic is a Serbian-born performance artist who began her career in the 1970s. She challenges gender and societal norms, the boundaries of artist-audience relationships, the body, and the mind.

I recently watched a video of her speaking about her 1974 performance, Rhythm 0. She placed various objects on a table, from pleasurable objects, such as roses and honey, to violent and pain inflicting ones, such as knives and scissors. In fact, she even placed a gun with a single bullet on the table, to see how far the audience could take this experimental performance. There was a sign stating that the audience has the freedom to do whatever they’d like to her and they will not be responsible for their actions for the duration of the performance (6 hours). 

At first, people were gentle. Eventually, the audience began testing Abramovic’s determination. People began cutting her clothes, slicing her throat and drinking her blood. One man even held the gun to her, waiting for her to move away. She did not. 

Abramovic gave up control over herself to the audience. It took a while, but some did abuse the power she gave up. Some remained gentle, but others easily forgot to treat her with modesty when she handed them power. After six hours of abuse, Abramovic stood up and walked out, yet the violent audience ran off to avoid confrontation. How cowardly! 

Viewing an artwork is often a passive experience. In most cases, the artwork or performer is caged off from the audience. Breaking that barrier between the audience and the art is still such an uncanny experience that as viewers we do not know how to react. She’s not only testing the audience’s limits, but challenging the traditional notions of an audience-artist relationship. 

If given the opportunity, how will you react to a powerless human being?