Artist who was 'ready to die' after allowing spectators to do anything to her for six hours shares the key thing she learned

Warning: This article contains discussion of sexual assault which some readers may find distressing.

An artist revealed the dire consequences of allowing strangers free rein to do whatever they wished to her body.

Marina Abramovic took her artwork to the extremes when she left an array of objects, including knives, a bullet and a gun on a table in front of her and let people do what they pleased to her.

This was back in 1974 Naples, Italy, and in the name of art, she told spectators that she would take 'full responsibility' for whatever they decided to do to her.

The Serbian artist was prepared for the worst - even admitting she was 'ready to die', and adding that she wouldn't have resisted being murdered or raped.

Her performative art piece was called Rhythm 0, it involved her giving herself over to the audience from 8pm until 2am.

Joining the gun and other various weapons on the table in front of her was an apple, a rose, honey, bread, wine, grapes and perfume, among other items - like razors.

As you'd imagine it started out pretty tame but as the Napoleon night raged on it took a sinister turn as a knife was stuck between the artist's legs half-way through the experiment.

The rose that was placed on the table was used in a vicious way too as spectators began scratching her stomach with the thorns from it - that was after they had already cut her clothes off with a razor blade.

Marina placed everything on a table from flowers to guns for people to use on her (YouTube/Marina Abramovic Institute)

One individual reportedly cut her neck to drink her blood, while another showcased the other side of humanity by wiping away her tears and trying to intervene.

Disgustingly, Abramovic was even sexually assaulted.

But it was when one spectator grabbed the gun, loaded it, put it against her head and placed her fingers on the trigger that a group of spectators that had formed throughout the night to protect her intervened that it ended.

While reports claim it stopped as a result of this, others suggest she walked away at 2am as planned.

But what was the key thing the then 26-year-old learned?

Abramovic said per Far Out magazine: "The experience I drew from this piece was that in your own performances you can go very far, but if you leave decisions to the public, you can be killed.”

Marina Abramovic was just 26 when she gave her body to the public in the name of art(Stefano Guidi/Getty Images)

Speaking with The Museum of Modern Art, she reflected on the experience.

Abramovic said: "In the beginning, the public was really very much playing with me. Later on, it became more and more aggressive.

"It was six hours of real horror. They would cut my clothes. They will cut me with a knife, close to my neck, and drink my blood, and then put the plaster over the wound."

The artist continued: "They will carry me around, half-naked, put me on the table, and stuck the knife between my legs into the wood."

If you've been affected by any of the issues in this article, you can contact The National Sexual Assault Hotline on 800.656.HOPE (4673), available 24/7. Or you can chat online via online.rainn.org