A Serbian artist once traded places with a sex worker for six hours amid a string of controversial performance art pieces including one where she had several orgasms in a gallery.
Back in the 1970s, Marina Abramović made headlines for her involvement in her 'Rhythm 0' art piece, a now infamous performance that lasted six hours.
In it, she displayed her will and the self control of the audience as they were allowed to use a number of objects on her in any way they wanted to, while she stood motionless.
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As controversial as the artistic piece was, it wasn't all that the performance artist did in her five decades of pushing herself to the limit with her work.
One of these experiences involved a short stint in the red light district in Amsterdam, titled 'Role Exchange', which also took place in the 70s.
Decades later, Abramović would cause more controversy with her performance in 'Seedbed' at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, as part of her Seven Easy Pieces series.
Why did Marina Abramović become a prostitute for 'Role Exchange'?
Back in the 1970s, Abramović participated in a performance called 'Role Exchange', which saw her switch places with a sex worker in the red light district in Amsterdam for six hours.
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She recalled: "I asked her to go to the gallery and be me and I sit in the window and become her.
"It was pretty scary stuff to do, but this was in 1975, I did it for six hours, it was so fascinating."
Abramović explained that it was her first time in the Dutch capital, as she said she was taught that 'being a prostitute was the lowest thing to be', noting that her mother would 'just die' when she found out about the work - ultimately becoming a main motivator for creating the piece.
What did Marina Abramović do during 'Role Exchange'?
Talking about the experience on her website, the performer said that the sex worker simply told her not to go below her price, as it will spoil business.
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"So I had the two customers; one asked about her, and the second one didn't want to pay the price," Abramović recalled.
"She said to me that I would starve if I will be (a) prostitute because I don't have any talent for that role."
So, unlike her other work, the Serbian performance artist was let off the hook with doing anything demeaning for this experiment.
What was Marina Abramović's Seedbed performance?
Seedbed was a performance piece from 1972, first carried out by Vito Acconci who masturbated to completion as his fantasies were played over a speaker at the Sonnabend Gallery in New York.
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Abramović carried out her own spin on the piece in 2005, which involved her masturbating non-stop, with her own recorded fantasies played over the speaker.
She noted that the 'taboo element' piqued her interest, as well as the 'sculptural element'.
Speaking about her experience on stage, she said: "Having orgasms publicly, being excited by the visitors steps above me - it’s really not easy, I tell you!"
She even told New York Magazine that she had nine orgasms during the reconstruction, and that it took immense focus to complete.
Marina Abramović's infamous Rhythm 0 performance
Abramović is perhaps best known for her involvement in her six-hour performance of 'Rhythm 0', which saw her stand motionless surrounded by 72 objects.
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These included matches, saws, nails, a whip, a mental bar, and even a loaded gun.
While audience members could interact with her, they were given free will to use the objects on her however they pleased.
Abramović was eventually stripped down, and during the performance her skin was slashed with blades, while someone even held a loaded gun to her head with her finger on the trigger.
Speaking about the stunt years later, she said of performance art: "The public, if they want to kill me, they can kill me.
"I was very foolish, I have to tell you, in that time, because I was absolutely going to the end, and I was lucky to survive."
Topics: Marina Abramovic, Art, Sex and Relationships, Weird
Joshua Nair