Marina Abramović's Rhythm O: Reimagining the Roles of Artist And
Marina Abramović’s Rhythm O: Reimagining the Roles of Artist and Observer By Ana Pearse Marina Abramović, Rhythm O, 1974, performance, Studio Morra, Naples, Italy. It was 1974 in Naples, Italy, when Marina Abramović (b.1946) left the following instructions for the people present within Studio Morra: “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” (Abramović MoMA). As viewers gathered in the spaCe, amongst the various objeCts, Abramović began her performance pieCe Rhythm O. The six-hour long performance, Rhythm O, was created through the aCtions of audience members, the laCk of movement/aCtion on Abramović’s behalf, and the seventy-two objeCts that Abramović provided for the gallery. Within the spaCe, seventy-two objeCts were laid on a table, ranging from everyday items to those withholding far more dangerous qualities (fig. 1). Some of the items Abramović Chose to include were a rose, perfume, grapes, nails, a bullet and gun, sCissors, a hammer, an ax, and a kitChen knife. Once such items were plaCed on the table, Abramović stood in the room without speaking, motionless, while the audience members were allowed to apply the objeCts to her body in any way that they desired. Figure 1: Performance participants selecting objects to use on Abramović. Rhythm O, 1974, performance, Studio Morra, Naples, Italy. As the spaCe was crowded with viewers antiCipating Abramović’s performance, the seventy-two objeCts remained motionless alongside Abramović and the crowd was faCed with a single deCision: what next? Reimagining the roles of both the artist and viewer, Rhythm O transformed Abramović’s body into an objeCt and the viewers into aCtive partiCipants/Creators.
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