By Evridiki Fatolia,
Marina Abramović and Ulay (his teal name is Frank Uwe Laysiepen) were lovers, companions, collaborators, and ultimately symbols of a unique artistic and human bond that, although it broke, was never forgotten. It highlights how love can be combined with art and give out an amazing result.
They met in Amsterdam on November 30, 1976, which also happened to be their birthdays. She is a vibrant Serbian artist who explores the body’s boundaries and endurance through extreme performances; he is a German artist who is interested in identity and the link between the self and the “other.” The attraction was immediate, and their relationship immediately blossomed into a highly emotional and artistic friendship.
Together, they formed the most radical artistic pair of their era. Their performances focused on the strength of coexistence, gender tensions, trust, and the psychosomatic union. In the legendary performance Rest Energy (1980), they stand facing each other, Marina holding a bow with an arrow pointed at her heart and Ulay holding the string. A single movement of his hand may hurt or kill her. A delicate piece that encompasses both perfect trust and the ongoing tension of all relationships.
But like many passionate relationships, theirs deteriorated over time as a result of conflicts in their personal and professional lives. They made the artistically symbolic decision to break up in 1988. For ninety days, they each traveled from one end of the Great Wall —he from the western end, she from the eastern— to meet in the center and bid farewell. Their love relationship terminated at that point, along with their partnership. It was a silent, lyrical, sad, ritualistic conclusion. They didn’t meet for over two decades. As she progressed in the field of contemporary art, Marina earned the title of “grandmother of performance art.” More reclusive, Ulay kept on creating, but without the recognition they had shared.
Marina’s major retrospective exhibition, The Artist Is Present, opened in 2010 at New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). In one of her most poignant performances, she sat calmly across from each visitor, exchanging expressions of emotion. No one expected Ulay to be among the visitors. When he sat across from her, Marina was shocked and moved. They exchanged no words, only glances and a final, gentle handshake. It was a moment of silent reconciliation that was captured on camera and shared around the world, moving millions. Their partnership is now regarded as one of the most defining examples of how art and life intersect.
References
- The bittersweet story of Marina Abramović’s epic walk on the Great Wall of China. The Guardian. Available here
- One Good Thing: The celebrity art couple who turned love into performance. Vox. Available here
- Marina Abramović in her own words: ‘Why don’t we have a ménage à trois?’. The Guardian. Available here
