Marina Abramovic Rhythm 0 ^new^ File

Rhythm 10 (1973) was her first major piece. She adapted a Slavic knife game, spreading the fingers of her left hand on a piece of paper and stabbing a knife into the spaces between them as rapidly as she could. Each time she cut herself, she would groan in pain and switch to a new knife, repeating the process until she had used all 20 knives. The entire act was recorded, and then she played the recording back and repeated the entire performance, trying to match the rhythm of the cuts. It was a study in pain, risk, and the possibility of turning an accident into a deliberate, planned event.

The 72 objects were carefully curated to represent a spectrum of human experience and intention: marina abramovic rhythm 0