Editing Rhythm 0

{{short description|Work of performance by Marina Abramović}}
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{{Refimprove|date=January 2025}}
[[File:Marina Abramović - The Artist Is Present - Viennale 2012.jpg|thumb|Artist Marina Abramović in 2012]]
'''''Rhythm 0''''' was a six-hour long [[endurance art]] performance by the Serbian performance artist [[Marina Abramović]] performed in the Galleria Studio Mora in [[Naples]] in 1974.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Abramović |first1=Marina |last2=Thompson |first2=Chris |last3=Weslien |first3=Katarina |title=Pure Raw: Performance, Pedagogy, and (Re)presentation |journal=PAJ |date=2006 |volume=28 |issue=1 |pages=29–50 |jstor=4139995 }}</ref> This was the final performance of Abramović's ''Rhythm'' ''Series'', following 4 previous performances that took place throughout 1973-1974.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Rhythm Series – Marina Abramović |url=https://blogs.uoregon.edu/marinaabramovic/category/rhythm-series/ |access-date=2025-05-08 |website=blogs.uoregon.edu}}</ref> The work involved Abramović standing still while the audience was invited to do to her whatever they wished, using one of 72 objects she had placed on a table. The items were specifically chosen to represent objects of both pleasure and pain.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Tate |title=‘Rhythm 0‘, Marina Abramovic, 1974 |url=https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/abramovic-rhythm-0-t14875 |access-date=2025-05-08 |website=Tate |language=en-GB}}</ref> Some items included; a rose, feather, perfume, honey, bread, grapes, wine, scissors, a scalpel, nails, a metal bar, a gun, and a bullet.<ref name=Abramovic01:00mins>[https://vimeo.com/71952791 "Marina Abramović on ''Rhythm 0'' (1974)"], Marina Abramović Institute, 2014, c. 01:00 mins.</ref><ref>[http://www.moma.org/explore/multimedia/audios/190/1972 "Marina Abramović. Rhythm 0. 1974"], Museum of Modern Art.</ref>

There were no separate stages. Abramović and the visitors stood in the same space, making it clear that the latter were part of the work.<ref>Frazer Ward, ''No Innocent Bystanders: Performance Art and Audience'', University Press of New England, 2012, p. 125.</ref> The purpose of the piece, she said, was to find out how far the public would go: "What is the public about and what are they going to do in this kind of situation?"<ref name=Abramovic00:00mins>[https://vimeo.com/71952791 Abramović 2014], c. 00:00 mins.</ref>

==Performance==
Her instructions were: 
{{blockquote|
Instructions:<br/>
There are 72 objects on the table that one can use on me as desired.<br/>
Performance.<br/>
I am the object...<br/>
During this period I take full responsibility.<br/>
Duration: 6 hours (8 pm – 2 am).<ref>Ward 2012, p. 119.</ref>}}
Abramović said the work "pushed her body to the limits".<ref name=Abramovic00:00mins/> Visitors were gentle to begin with, offering her a rose or a kiss.<ref name=Abramovic01:00mins/> Art critic [[Thomas McEvilley]], who was present, wrote:

{{blockquote|"It began tamely. Someone turned her around. Someone thrust her arms into the air. Someone touched her somewhat intimately. The Neapolitan night began to heat up. In the third hour all her clothes were cut from her with razor sharp blades. In the fourth hour the same blades began to explore her skin. Her throat was slashed so someone could suck her blood. Various minor sexual assaults were carried out on her body. She was so committed to the piece that she would not have resisted rape or murder. Faced with her abdication of will, with its implied collapse of human psychology, a protective group began to define itself in the audience. When a loaded gun was thrust to Marina's head and her own finger was being worked around the trigger, a fight broke out between the audience factions".<ref>Ward 2012, p. 120.</ref>}}

As Abramović described it later: "What I learned was that [...] if you leave it up to the audience, they can kill you [...] I felt really violated: they cut up my clothes, stuck rose thorns in my stomach, one person aimed the gun at my head, and another took it away. It created an aggressive atmosphere. After exactly 6 hours, as planned, I stood up and started walking toward the audience. Everyone ran away, to escape an actual confrontation".<ref>Daneri, 29; and 30</ref><ref>[https://vimeo.com/71952791 Abramović 2014], c. 01:45 mins.</ref>

In the work, Marina explored the physical and mental limits of her being. In this she withstood pain, exhaustion, and danger in her exploration of an emotional and spiritual transformation. This performance was inspired by the contradictions of her childhood: both parents were high-ranking officials in the socialist government, while her grandmother, with whom she had lived, was devoutly Serbian Orthodox.<ref>{{cite web |title=Marina Abramović {{!}} Rhythm 0 |url=https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/5177 |website=Guggenheim Museum |access-date=21 January 2025}}</ref> 

==Reception==
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''Rhythm 0,'' along with another of Abramović's performances; ''The Artist is Present,'' ranked ninth among the all-time best performance art pieces in a 2013 list by ''[[Complex (magazine)|Complex]]'' magazine.<ref name=":0">{{cite magazine|url= https://www.complex.com/style/a/dale-eisinger/the-25-best-performance-art-pieces-of-all-time|title=The 25 Best Performance Art Pieces of All Time|last=Eisinger|first=Dale|magazine=Complex|date=April 9, 2013|access-date=July 19, 2017}}</ref> The magazine discussed the two pieces ability to create a relationship between performer and audience, despite the opposing power dynamics of both pieces. Complex magazine credits Abramović for popularizing performance art to "pop-star standards."<ref name=":0" />

In 2023, ''The Guardian'' revisited Abramovic’s work and its continuing relevance today: “As some of the reviews of her RA show revealed, Abramović’s performance art practice still invites scepticism, even disgust – reactions to which she is long accustomed. She told me: “When I started in the early 70s, everyone said we were crazy. ‘This is not art, it’s nothing’”. By using the body as her medium, Abramović shows just how close art can get to life. As spectators of her work, we are also implicated in the reality of what people endure. Rhythm 0 is a shattering reminder of the people who live in fear of abuse daily”.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Hessel |first=Katy |date=2023-09-25 |title=Marina Abramović’s shocking Rhythm 0 performance shows why we still cannot trust people in power |url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2023/sep/25/marina-abramovics-shocking-rhythm-0-performance-shows-why-we-still-cannot-trust-people-in-power |access-date=2025-02-23 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref>

''The Harvard Crimson'' in a 2023 article notes in regards to the audience’s reception of the piece: “One of the main reactions the audience members aimed to elicit was fear, reflecting the power dynamics at play between the artist and the audience. The audience members were aware that there would be no consequences for their actions against Abramović. This lack of consequence contributed to their increased willingness to use the objects in more extreme ways”.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Violent Viewer: Rhythm 0 and Subjecting Oneself to Dehumanization {{!}} Arts {{!}} The Harvard Crimson |url=https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2023/3/30/maria-abramovic-performance-art-rhythm0-article/ |access-date=2025-02-23 |website=www.thecrimson.com}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Endurance art]]
* ''[[The Death of The Artist]]''
* ''[[Empathy and Prostitution]]''
* [[Stanford prison experiment]]
* [[Milgram experiment]]
* [[Cut Piece 1964]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTBkbseXfOQ Marina Abramovic on performing ''Rhythm 0'' (1974)]
* [https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/5177 Guggenheim catalog on Rhythm 0 (1974)]

{{performance art}}
{{Endurance art}}

[[Category:Endurance art performances]]
[[Category:1974 in art]]