The Unbearable Permissiveness of Being: A Re-Evaluation of Marina Abramović’s Rhythm 0 (1974)
To understand Rhythm 0 as a full performance is to abandon the myth of the single shocking photograph. Instead, we must trace its four distinct phases: (1) The Threshold of Politeness, (2) The Emboldened Gaze, (3) The Pleasure of Transgression, and (4) The Near-Fatal Abyss. The performance’s unique structure inverted the traditional power dynamic. By immobilizing her body (standing, expressionless) and declaring “I take full responsibility,” Abramović effectively surrendered legal and moral recourse. Crucially, the audience was not asked to consent to a contract with each other—only with the artist’s passivity. rhythm 0 full performance
As midnight approached, the atmosphere shifted from experimental to predatory. She was stripped, her clothes cut away. A thorny rose stem was pressed into her abdomen. Someone placed the chainsaw against her throat—then laughed and withdrew it. The loaded pistol was lifted, pressed to her temple. A shouting match erupted: one audience member insisted on firing it; another pushed the gun away, only to later return and draw a bloody star on her forehead with a razor. Abramović later recalled feeling her body no longer belonged to her. “They were cutting me, drinking my blood, licking my wounds.” The Unbearable Permissiveness of Being: A Re-Evaluation of