Marina Abramović and Ulay met on November 30, 1975, their shared birthday, and became both partners and artistic collaborators. Together they created groundbreaking performances such as Relations in Space , in which they collided head-on for over an hour, Rest Energy , in which they balanced a bow with the arrowhead aimed at Marina's heart, and Nightsea Crossing , in which they sat in silence facing each other for seven hours, repeated 22 times.
Their last performance in 1988 consisted of a 4000 km walk from opposite ends of the Great Wall of China, not to get married, as planned, but to get divorced.
After a touching reunion in The Artist is Present in 2010 and a subsequent conflict over rights, they met one last time, shortly before Ulay's death, for a conversation about their love and artistic legacy. This meeting became a final work of art, where the truth behind the masks was explored, not through pain, but in the light of death.
Author: Kasper Bech Dyg
Page count: 400
Publisher: Book Lab ApS
Language: English