Marina Abramović has built her career on testing the limits of the human body and spirit, but one performance pushed her closer to death than she ever expected. In 1974, the Serbian-born artist allowed strangers to do anything they wanted to her for six hours—an experiment that revealed how quickly empathy can collapse when no rules stand in the way.

The piece, called Rhythm 0, placed Abramović motionless in a gallery beside a table of 72 objects. Some were harmless, like feathers and flowers. Others were dangerous, including scissors, a scalpel, and even a loaded gun. Her instructions were simple: the audience could use any object on her in any way they wished. She would not move or resist.

At first, the crowd acted gently. People handed her roses, touched her softly, or adjusted her pose like a mannequin. But as the hours passed, something darker began to emerge. The permission she had given the public stripped away their inhibitions, and the atmosphere changed.

Spectators tore her clothes, cut her skin, and used sharp objects to test how far they could go. One person even held the loaded gun to her head. Abramović later said, “I had a pistol with bullets in it, my dear. I was ready to die.” She left the performance covered in blood, scarred both physically and emotionally.

When the six hours ended and Abramović finally moved, the audience panicked and fled, horrified by their own behavior. The moment revealed how easily people can slip into cruelty when they believe there are no consequences.

The experience shaped her future work, including her later performance The Artist Is Present, which showed the opposite side of human nature—connection, empathy, and quiet emotional exchange. For Abramović, confronting fear is the only way to grow, even if it means risking everything for her art.