Whereas

Does the highlighted "whereas" in the following text man "although"? That is does the sentence mean "although the audience thought that she was under water, they did not know that the distortion of her face was due to a temporary loss of consciousness"?

Text:

In an early video performance, Art Must be Beautiful, 1975–76, in which Abramovic harshly drags a metal brush and comb through her hair for up to an hour, her endurance of pain attempts to transcend her own narcissism and the art world’s desire for that narcissism, the action exemplifying the desire to attack the body as a surface of projections and fantasies. It is almost as if in this phase of object-relating, Abramovic has to damage the body or put it in danger as a way of ridding it of neurotic attachments. One could also think of Abramovic’s attempts to attain unconsciousness in Rhythm 4, 1974, in which she used an air blower on her face at high pressure. The audience in the next room watched on a monitor, which only showed her face, so they were unaware that the distortion of Abramovic’s features was due to a temporary loss of consciousness, whereas they thought that she was under water.