Marina Abramovic Rhythm 0 Today

A firearm and a single round of ammunition.

Marina Abramović did not intend Rhythm 0 as a mere stunt or a provocation for its own sake. She intended it as a test of the human soul. And the results, as she was horrified to discover, were damning. In the half-century since that night, the world has seen countless genocides, massacres, and atrocities, all committed by ordinary people given extraordinary license to do harm. Rhythm 0 was a small-scale model of a recurring nightmare. It is a work of art that asks the most uncomfortable possible question: given the power to do anything, with no consequences whatsoever, what kind of person would you be? The answer, as Abramović's trembling, weeping, half-naked body in a Naples gallery revealed, is that we may be far worse than we ever imagined. The objects on the table—the feather, the rose, the scalpel, the gun—are still there, waiting for the next person to choose. marina abramovic rhythm 0