The first time when I see the video “Abramovic and Ulay during Abramovic’s The Artist Present
performance at MoMa”, I was really shock while I see the tears streamed from her eyes. After I
checked her information, I found that the women in red is named Marina Abramovic, the man who
hold her hand is her ex-boyfriend, Uwe Laysiepen. Apparently, the relationship between Abramovic
and Ulay definitely evoke my interest, so I begin to search their information and background.
Marina Abramovic is a Serbian performance artist based in New York. She is been called “Grandmother of performance art”. Most of Abramovic’s work explores the relationship between performer and audience, the limits of the body and possibilities of the mind. Abramovic was grown up in a military-style family, her parents were “national heroes” after the Second World War and were given positions in the post-war Yugoslavian government. I believe the military background of Abramovic’s parents brought her lots of pain. As a child, Abramovic’s mother beat her and her brother a lot. The most horrible moment of Abramovic’s childhood was the moment while her father smashed 12 champagne glasses and left the house. I don’t know if this part of background relates to her pieces, however most of her works focus on “confronting pain, blood and physical limits of the body”.
I believe that Ulay is the most sweet but painful memory in Abramovic’s head. When they are lovers, they do performance art together a lot, however their art made they gradually hate each other. It seems like art is their child, while they raising up their child, more and more conflicting appears between them. There are two very large performance during them walk together. The first one was they stay in a boat and stare at each other for 90 days. While the time pass, they gradually feel bored and begin to hate each other. I could said that most of their pieces shows relationship between people, especially man and women.
The first art performance they worked together is called “Relation in Space”. They ran into each other repeatedly for an hour – mixing male and female energy into the third component called “that self”. I saw the video of this piece, Abramovic was knocked down by Ulay several times. However Ulay didn’t use most of his energy when ran into Abramovic is because “They feel terrify and hate while facing their weakness, they want to create something complex between them”.
Marina Abramovic is a Serbian performance artist based in New York. She is been called “Grandmother of performance art”. Most of Abramovic’s work explores the relationship between performer and audience, the limits of the body and possibilities of the mind. Abramovic was grown up in a military-style family, her parents were “national heroes” after the Second World War and were given positions in the post-war Yugoslavian government. I believe the military background of Abramovic’s parents brought her lots of pain. As a child, Abramovic’s mother beat her and her brother a lot. The most horrible moment of Abramovic’s childhood was the moment while her father smashed 12 champagne glasses and left the house. I don’t know if this part of background relates to her pieces, however most of her works focus on “confronting pain, blood and physical limits of the body”.
I believe that Ulay is the most sweet but painful memory in Abramovic’s head. When they are lovers, they do performance art together a lot, however their art made they gradually hate each other. It seems like art is their child, while they raising up their child, more and more conflicting appears between them. There are two very large performance during them walk together. The first one was they stay in a boat and stare at each other for 90 days. While the time pass, they gradually feel bored and begin to hate each other. I could said that most of their pieces shows relationship between people, especially man and women.
The first art performance they worked together is called “Relation in Space”. They ran into each other repeatedly for an hour – mixing male and female energy into the third component called “that self”. I saw the video of this piece, Abramovic was knocked down by Ulay several times. However Ulay didn’t use most of his energy when ran into Abramovic is because “They feel terrify and hate while facing their weakness, they want to create something complex between them”.
After this show, Abramovic told her ex-husband that she falls in love with Ulay, and they had a
divorce soon.
The other performance that really amazed me was the one called “Breathing in/ Breathing out”. Abramovic and Ulay devised a piece in which they connected their mouths and took in each other’s exhaled breaths until they had used up all oxygen. They insist this performance for 19mins, both of them breath really hard after they suddenly split out, they even feel the Carbon dioxide they they created disgusting. I think that this performance really interesting because it shows the relationship between lovers that only depend on each other. They can’t live without each other, just like we can’t leave the Oxygen, however they get tired of this kind of relationship very quick because their love are very stressful. They only have two endings to choose: split up or die. I think this performance also imply the tragic ending between Abramovic and Ulay.
The other performance that really amazed me was the one called “Breathing in/ Breathing out”. Abramovic and Ulay devised a piece in which they connected their mouths and took in each other’s exhaled breaths until they had used up all oxygen. They insist this performance for 19mins, both of them breath really hard after they suddenly split out, they even feel the Carbon dioxide they they created disgusting. I think that this performance really interesting because it shows the relationship between lovers that only depend on each other. They can’t live without each other, just like we can’t leave the Oxygen, however they get tired of this kind of relationship very quick because their love are very stressful. They only have two endings to choose: split up or die. I think this performance also imply the tragic ending between Abramovic and Ulay.
After they broke up for 22years, when Ulay appears in front on Abramovic again, she was doing
a famous art performance in MoMa. This performance lasted for one month, Abramovic have to
seat on a chair and waiting for others to seat in front of her face to face. She stares these audience
in silence and peaceful while they are crying or laughing, however when Ulay appears, she lost her
control. Tears streamed from her beautiful eyes, she began to cry. They hold their hands together
for 10secs and Ulay leaves. I believe this is the last performance they do together in their life. Their
love and hate were fire at beginning, however finally extinguish peacefully in the end. Though their
love didn’t have a perfect ending, however this is what our life like – beautiful, but not always end
in perfect.
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