Rhythm 0 -

Abramović’s refusal to react—no flinch, no scream, no plea—created a terrifying cognitive dissonance. Humans rely on feedback loops to regulate aggression. When a child cries, we stop. When an animal whimpers, we pause. Abramović broke the loop. By remaining a “thing,” she inadvertently invited the audience to treat her as a thing. The tears in her eyes were real, but without a movement to escape, the audience rationalized: She must want this.

Drawing from Abramović’s retrospective accounts (notably her memoir Walk Through Walls ) and contemporary documentation, the performance unfolded in three distinct psychological acts. rhythm 0

The Abyss of Permission: Deconstructing Agency, Atrocity, and the Audience in Marina Abramović’s Rhythm 0 Abramović’s refusal to react—no flinch, no scream, no

Rhythm 0 is not a performance about a woman standing still. It is a performance about a civilization that looks away. It asks the question that remains unanswered forty years later: When an animal whimpers, we pause