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- Marina Abramović, in 1974, performed one of the most absurd social experiments ever
Marina Abramović, in 1974, performed one of the most absurd social experiments ever
Faraz Ali
April 03, 2024
She was anesthetized and then placed on a table in a large room, various objects, some of which were capable of injuring, such as scissors, knives and even a gun and others harmless such as flowers and honey.
She then invited a large group of people to choose any object from the table that they could use as they saw fit on Marina's body.
With this experiment the woman wanted to demonstrate how evil and good act in people.
At first the spectators seemed intimidated, but when they saw that Marina did not react to the stimuli, they gradually became bolder.
Some people used knives and caused stab wounds, others stabbed her in the abdomen, others used scissors to cut all her clothes and some people even took the gun with bullets and stuck the barrel into Abramovic's mouth, trying to pull the trigger.
For six hours, Abramovic's life and death were in the hands of these spectators and she almost left this world.
Her eyes filled with tears and her heart felt great fear during these violent acts, but the woman could not move.
Only at the end of the anesthesia effect, Marina jumped up and approached the audience, launching a silent accusation with her gaze and it was then that the audience felt how badly she had behaved and therefore fled.
The conclusion that Abramović drew from this experiment was:
“If you leave all the initiative to the public, you are not far from death.”
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