In 2010, Marina Abramović, known as the "Mother of Performance Art," held a major retrospective at MoMA, "The Artist Here," where she sat quietly at a wooden table, gazing at strangers who kept coming forward and accepting their gaze.
The show was sensational, attracting 850,000 people and lasting more than 700 hours, but no matter who was on the other side, Abu just stared at each other calmly, as indifferent as a sculpture.
However, when a handsome old man with white hair stepped forward and sat across from her, Abramovich looked up, tears bursting out of his eyes, and the huge emotional ups and downs that were difficult to calm made her burst into tears and couldn't help but reach out and hold the man across from her tightly.
This one-minute gaze has also become the most famous scene in the history of performance art.
<h5>The Artist Is Present, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2010</h5>
The man who caused Abramović's emotions to shake was her former lover, the German artist Frank Uwe Laysiepen, or Ulay for short.
The meeting of this worldly couple has brought infinite shock to tens of millions of people, and the stories of love and killing between them and those shocking works have always been enjoyed by the world.
However, in the early hours of this morning, the news came that on March 2, 2020, Ouray died in his sleep in Ljubljana, Slovenia, due to complications caused by cancer treatment, at the age of 76.
The Ouray Foundation also posted on Facebook: "It is with great sadness that one of the greatest artists of our time, the pioneer of Polaroid photography, the father of performance art, the most radical and unique Ulay, left us peacefully in his sleep yesterday and went on another journey (November 30, 1943 to March 2, 2020). ”
"Ouray is unbeatable. As a person and as an artist. He had the softest soul, he was a giver, a pioneer, a provocateur, an activist, he was also a mentor, a colleague, a friend, a father, a husband, a man who sought light, a man who loved life, a traveler, a fighter, a thinker. He has always strived to push the limits, endured pain, selflessly and fearlessly, and his virtue, elegance, and wit have influenced many people. He will be deeply remembered by his family, friends, the art world and thousands of people, and he has influenced generations of artists and future generations, and his memory and legacy will live on forever. ”
In 1943, Ulay was born in an air raid shelter in the German city of Solingen during World War II. His father died in the war, and his mother went mad because of the war, which led to his long-term solitary and silent character. Orphaned at the age of 15, Ouray subsequently married and had children, and at the age of 21 has achieved two successful job opportunities.
In the 1960s, Ouray gave up everything and went to Amsterdam, the Netherlands, to join the occasional art group The Provos. There, he began his career in photography, becoming a consultant for Polaroid and giving him the opportunity to travel to London, Paris, Rome and New York.
Ulay's shots delves into the world of marginalized groups outside the mainstream of many societies, such as transsexuals, transvestites and tramps, and his photographs shocked the art world with their sharp and intimate subject matter and realistic picture style.
In December 1976, Ulay used a full-page advertisement in the important German art magazine Art Forum to announce how he would steal a painting from the New State Gallery in Berlin, and described his performance art in 14 steps called "Provocation, Illegal Contact with Works of Art", and the media reaction became an important part of his work.
Ulay's acquaintance with Abramovich was like a coincidence that Heaven had arranged.
On November 30, 1976, the day of his 33rd birthday, Ouray was commissioned to go to amsterdam airport in the Netherlands to pick up Abramovich, who had the same birthday as him.
The high degree of soul-to-soul fit between the arts made them fall in love at first sight. Ulay said: "We quickly became fascinated with each other... It's like finding a long-lost sibling. ”
Abu was married at the time, but she divorced and walked with Ulay and embarked on a 12-year adventure of life and art.
Although Abu later said, "An artist should not fall in love with another." But in times of mad love, what Abu said was, "I love him more than I love myself." ”
Together, they got into a van and drove around Europe. They also lived in the desert with the aborigines of Australia, they also went to temples in India, and also spent some time in the Sahara Desert... Love prompts the two to perform together, and also allows them to gradually go to the peak of their careers.
For the next 12 years, they have been the most famous and pioneering art couple in the world, creating a series of famous works with the theme of "relationship" as a couple.
In 1976, they became a hit in "Relationships in Space".
In The Relationship in Time, they tied each other's hairs together and sat back-to-back for 17 hours. It means that two people together will bring love and support to each other, but it also means bondage and bondage.
<h5> Relationships in Time: 17 hours, 1977</h5>
1977 'The Immeasurable': At the Mambo Museum in Bologna, Italy, Abu and Ouray stand naked in the doorway, with the viewer having to choose to face one of them sideways in order to pass through the narrow gap between them.
Breathing (1978): The two of them put their mouths together and inhaled each other's exhaled gas. After 17 minutes, their lungs were filled with carbon dioxide and they all fell to the floor unconscious. In another work, the two of them sit on their knees facing each other and scream at each other until one of them loses his voice...
Potential (1980): The two men share a set of bows and arrows, Abu holds the bow, and Ulay holds the arrows on the bow, and then they push each other backwards, leaving the bows and arrows in a tight state that is about to be shot, and if they are not careful, the arrows will immediately shoot into Abu's chest.
Abu said: "I am in a passive state... Two tiny microphones were placed near our hearts and we could hear each other's heartbeats. As the show progressed, our heartbeats got faster and faster. Although this one lasted for 4 minutes and 10 seconds, it was like eternity to me. It's a show that's all about trust. ”
<h5>Rest-Energy, duration: 4 minutes, 1980</h5>
However, another seemingly calm but extremely torturous performance revealed their emotional rift. Abu and Ouray began their meditation series called Nightsea Crossing in 1981: they spent 90 days sitting quietly in museums around the world, looking at each other, motionless... Venues are located in cities around the world.
But almost every time, it was Ouray who stopped looking at each other first and evacuated first. This makes it difficult for Abu, who has been stubbornly insisting, to forgive.
<h5> Nightsea Crossing (1980</h5>).
After 12 years of tacit understanding, the two men's relationship came to an end due to "differences in artistic concepts and life" and Ouray's derailment, culminating in a ritualistic performance art called "The Lovers: The Great Wall Walk."
On March 30, 1988, at 10:47 a.m., Abu climbed the Shanhaiguan pass of the Great Wall and set off from east to west, while Ulay boarded Jiayuguan in Gansu Province and walked east. The two walked toward each other, which lasted three months and traveled more than 4,000 kilometers, and finally met at Erlang Mountain in Shanxi Province.
"Our original plan was to get married after we met there." Abu said, "I cried when he hugged me. It was a hug from a work partner, not from a lover. ”
It took them eight years to prepare, but in the end, the show turned into a goodbye and a breakup. Since then, 12 years of cooperation and feelings have come to an end.
<h5> Marina Abramović & Ulay, The Great Wall Walk, Two-channel video( color) (1988/2010</h5>).
<h5> Marina Abramović, Ulay, The Great Wall Walk, Two-channel video, color, 1988/2010</h5>
After the breakup, Abramovich once again said goodbye to Ulay with performance art in a performance called "Autobiography". She stood on the stage and said in a deeply sad voice, "Goodbye, loneliness, misfortune, tears, goodbye, Ulay." ”
After their relationship ended, Ulay returned to the medium of photography and continued to create a large number of works: using Polaroid to document performance art in the studio, travel photography, and some unprecedented experimental works such as black shadow photographs and shadow imaging.
In The Aftermath of Berlin (1994-95), he focuses on the tragic experiences of marginalized individuals living in cities in a nationalist context. Ouray's radical and innovative work, as well as his many performance art, made him one of the most important artistic figures of his time.
In 2011, Ouray was diagnosed with cancer. He underwent his first chemotherapy and was inspired to create from it. He then collaborated with Damjan Kozolet on the documentary Project Cancer, which showcases Ouray's experience of battling cancer and taking a "farewell journey" around the world to meet friends, and constantly pursuing important places in his life. As the artist himself later put it, it was another experiment against his own body.
In his later years, Ulay met his future wife, a Slovenian graphic designer, in Ljubljana. Abu chose to be alone. Someone found in her kitchen that had a magnet sticker that read, "I can only please one person a day." Today I choose to please myself. ”
Abu also found someone to put his "funeral" on the stage in advance, in this way to reconcile with the world and his own life. Recalling her separation from Ulay, she said: "I don't love him anymore, I think I'm free." But she added, "If I were young, we should have a child." ”
The relationship between Abu and Ulay also continues to develop unexpectedly in an unfathomable plot. The "reunion of the century", which moved the world in public in 2010, did not reconcile the two lovers who had once loved and were jealous. In 2015, Ulay took his former favorite to court in a complaint accusing Abramovich of monopolizing the copyright income of the works they had created together for sixteen years.
According to media reports, since Abramovich and Ulay broke up in 1988, the two did not have any conversations until 1999. Encouraged by Sean Kelly, the head of Abu Gallery, the two had contracted Abu to manage the art they were working on. Under the contract, Abramovich was able to dispose of the above "works" on the basis of guaranteeing Thature's right to know, but 20% of the proceeds belonged to Ulay, who insisted that Abu had breached the contract by not paying his share of the economy. The contract also stipulated that the duo's collaboration required both names to appear at the same time, but Abu has claimed to be the sole author for years.
Ouray asked Abramovich to show every three months the sales and royalties of the work they collaborated on, and that the work must bear Ouray's name on it. Abu denied all the accusations and countered that Ulay was damaging her reputation. In the end, Ouray won the case and Abu was silent.
In a former performance art scene, they slapped each other
In June 2017, at an Abramović retrospective in Denmark, I don't know whether it was an arranged performance or another coincidence, Ulay reappeared, the two reconciled again, and Abu and Ulay reconciled. Abu said she had let go of "all the anger and all the hatred." Ulay said, "Everything that is nasty and unsatisfactory is discarded."
From Provocation, Unlawful Contact to Works of Art to The Great Wall, these two works are two of Ouray's most iconic works, the starting point of his collaboration with Abu and the testimony of their 12-year love. They all debuted in China in 2019 at CHAO Arts Center's annual exhibition "The Way of Seeing."
In November 2019, Toure set up the Foundation and Project Space on the occasion of his 76th birthday. The Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, also announced at the time that it would hold a solo exhibition of "Ouray" from November 2020 to April 2021.
On 26 September 2020, Abramovich will also be the first female artist to hold a major solo exhibition in the main hall of the Royal Academy of Arts (RA) in London.
After flying alone for more than thirty years, this year will usher in a solo art exhibition in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. The fate between them still exists.
Rein Wolfs, the current director of the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, said: "With the growing interest in performance art, it is time to re-evaluate the history of this genre and go back to the artists who drove it." Since the 1970s, Ulay has been an outstanding artist in performance and body art, including his collaboration with Marina Abramovich. Ouray has always used identity and body as a medium of creation. The Stedelijk Museum amsterdam will re-present this art form and confirm its significance, drawing on its rich history and rich exploration of the field of performance art. ”
A statement from the museum said: "Despite his long-term collaboration with Abramovich (1976-88), before that, after that, he created wonderful avant-garde 'solos'. ”
It is reported that the solo exhibition "Ouray" will cover four themes, namely performance art and video by German-Dutch artists; research on gender identity and body media; participation in social and political issues; and connections with Amsterdam (Ulay has settled in the city since the 1960s).
This year, Abramovich will also be the first female artist to land in the main exhibition hall of the Royal Academy of Arts in London, holding her first major solo exhibition in the United Kingdom, combing through the important stages of her 50-year artistic career, including the latest works.
In her seventies, she will examine the changes in the artist's body and how she feels about the cycle of life and death. During the exhibition, Abramovich will also be present to discuss with the audience, "Can performance art last longer than the moment when performance occurs?" She will examine and answer these questions by analyzing photographs, videos, installations and performances by young performance artists.
And this time, Ouray will not be on the scene again.
Let's finally listen to a song about them
"Oh, Ouray"
Ulay, OhHow I Became the Bomb – Adonis
There she was like a picture.
She was there, like a picture
There she was, she was just the same.
She was there, still the same
There she was; he just had to know that she had forgot his name.
She was there, and he just wondered if she had forgotten his name
Ulay, Ulay, Oh.
Ulay, Ulay, oh
Thinking back to the last time.
Think back to the old days, the last scene
On the wall as they turned away.
Above the Great Wall, they turned and parted
Walking back; was it just a dream or did he hear her say?
Come back, was it just a dream or did he hear her call?
Trying his best to forget her.
He tried his best to forget her
Trying his best to just keep his stride.
He did his best to keep his pace
Kept his word, but he knows he heard
He remained silent, but he knew he could hear it
There he was like his picture.
He was there, like a picture
There he was; he was just the same.
He was there, still the same
There he was. He could never know she could never forget his name.
He was there, and he never knew she would ever forget his name
On the wall as he turned away.
Turning back, did he even know?
Come back, did he know
Did he ever hear her say
Did he hear her say it
Ulay, Ulay, Oh?
Trying her best to forget him.
She tried her best to forget him
Trying her best just to keep her stride.
She did her best to keep her pace
There they were like the picture.
They were there, like a picture
There they were, they were just the same.
They were there, still the same
There they were, but he walked away and her eyes could only say
They were there, but he was finally gone, and her eyes could only speak
Ulay, Ulay, Oh
Source: Yi Xi
This issue is written by Wang Run
Editor of this issue: Wang Run
Producer: Jia Wei
Process Edit: TF020