In the annals of modern art, few performances are as provocative, disturbing, and revealing as Marina Abramović’s Rhythm 0. Presented in 1974 at Studio Morra in Naples, Italy, this six-hour performance wasn’t just art — it was a social experiment, a psychological mirror, and a daring surrender of agency.
With her body as the canvas and the audience as the brush, Abramović posed a single haunting question:
What will people do when they are given absolute power over another human being who cannot resist?
The answer, as the performance unfolded, was both illuminating and terrifying.
The Premise: Radical Vulnerability as Performance
At the start of Rhythm 0, Abramović stood passively in a gallery space beside a table containing 72 objects. Some were benign — a rose, feathers, a piece of bread, a mirror. Others were ominous — a whip, a scalpel, a metal bar, a loaded gun.
A sign beside her read:
“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.”
In other words: for six hours, she would do nothing to resist. The audience could touch her, manipulate her, harm her, even potentially kill her. She relinquished her will entirely.
What followed was a chilling descent into the psychology of group behavior, the dehumanization of the passive body, and the fragile boundary between civility and savagery.
The Progression: From Curiosity to Cruelty
The performance began innocently. People approached hesitantly. Some handed her flowers. Others kissed her or posed her body gently. A viewer offered a drink of water.
But as time passed and her passive submission was confirmed, the mood began to shift.
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Her clothes were cut open.
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Her body was groped, smeared with substances, marked with cuts.
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One person put a knife between her legs.
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Another loaded the gun, placed it in her hand, and pointed it at her own neck — to test how far the audience would go.
By the end of the six hours, Abramović had been assaulted, humiliated, and nearly killed — and she had never moved, never protested, never even made eye contact.
When the performance concluded and she began to walk toward the audience, people fled. They could not face the person they had treated as an object. The illusion was broken — and with it, their ability to disassociate from their actions.
What Rhythm 0 Revealed
Abramović’s performance was not a stunt or a masochistic spectacle. It was a brutal excavation of human nature — a performance that has since been discussed in art circles, ethics debates, and psychology forums for decades.
🧠 Obedience and Authority
Rhythm 0 echoes the infamous Milgram Experiment, where participants were instructed to administer electric shocks to a stranger. Like Milgram, Abramović revealed how quickly people abdicate personal responsibility when told they have permission — or worse, when they believe there are no consequences.
👥 Mob Mentality and Escalation
Once one person crossed a line, others followed — a classic example of group escalation, where taboo behavior becomes normalized by exposure. Cruelty, when sanctioned, is not just possible — it’s contagious.
🧍♀️ Objectification of the Body
Abramović’s total stillness removed her subjectivity. She became, in the minds of the participants, an object — not a woman, not a human, but a surface to act upon. This stripping of agency is the heart of dehumanization, and it’s disturbingly easy to enact when the victim cannot resist.
🪞 A Mirror to the Viewer
The performance forced the audience to confront their own moral thresholds. Some resisted the temptation. Some tried to protect her. But many others crossed boundaries they may never have believed themselves capable of breaching. The art was not just on display — it was the people themselves.
Legacy and Impact
Rhythm 0 remains one of the most legendary and studied performance art pieces in history. It is a cornerstone of Abramović’s career, one that exemplifies her recurring themes: pain, trust, endurance, vulnerability, and the sacredness of presence.
It is frequently cited in discussions about:
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Consent and bodily autonomy
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The psychology of cruelty
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Feminism and the treatment of the female body
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The performative limits of art itself
In the #MeToo era, Rhythm 0 takes on renewed resonance — a reminder of how easily power can be abused, how fragile the boundary of safety is, and how important resistance and voice are to autonomy.
Final Reflection: The Line Between Human and Object
Marina Abramović once said of the performance:
“What I learned was that… if you leave it up to the audience, they can kill you.”
But she also learned that some protected her, some resisted the descent, and not all surrendered to darkness.
Rhythm 0 wasn’t just a performance. It was a question — brutally posed — to every person watching:
When given permission to do anything,
who do you become?