The experiment quickly went awry, which was to be expected, but where exactly did things go wrong?
At first, the performance was very mild, with onlookers giving her a rose for just standing there. But things would get pretty grim after that.
“At the beginning, nothing really happened,” the 77-year-old Abramović would later remark on the prank in a YouTube video hosted by the Marina Abramovic Institute.
“The audience was very polite. The crowd became more irrational as they handed me a rose, kissed me, and looked at me.”
Encouraged by the knowledge that Abramović had put all of her trust in those around her, onlookers started acting aggressively.
