Ulay Oh..

Performance artist Marina Abramovic was doing a live art show that involved her sitting in silence for 1 minute opposite complete strangers. Lots of people took part, but one man in particular gave her goosebumps.

I’ll let you watch the video and then I will explain a little more further below as I think you will appreciate the back story more once you see what happens in the video.

The story behind the scene:

In 2010, Serbian artist Marina Abramović had the honor of being the subject of a popular retrospective at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. Throughout the show, Abramović performed a 736 hours and 30 minutes grueling piece entitled “The Artist Is Present,” sitting in the museum’s atrium and inviting the swelling crowds of viewers to sit directly opposite her, in silent dialogue. Abramović was no stranger to challenging performances. By the time that MoMA staged the retrospective, the then 63 year old artist had engaged in countless taxing exhibitions, earning her self-given title, “the grandmother of performance art.”

In her first performance at 27, Abramović explored the idea of ritual by playing a knife game on camera, stabbing the surface between her splayed fingers with a knife and occasionally hurting herself; she would then watch a video recording of the violence, and attempt to replicate it. Subsequent performances included her explorations of consciousness through the ingestion of pills for catatonia and depression; another comprised a 1974 incarnation of her MoMA performance, where Abramović sat passively before a table littered with objects for six hours, inviting the audience to put them to use on her person (of this piece, Abramović says, “What I learned was that… if you leave it up to the audience, they can kill you… I felt really violated: they cut up my clothes, stuck rose thorns in my stomach…”)

In 1976, Abramović met Ulay (Frank Uwe Laysiepen), a West German artist who would become her lover and collaborator for the next twelve years. The duo fell into an impersonal abyss, losing their self hoods and attempting to become a single entity through arresting performances such as Breathing In/Breathing Out, where they locked mouths and breathed each other’s exhaled breath, eventually filling their lungs with carbon monoxide and falling unconscious.

By 1988, their romance had run its course; in typically atypical fashion, the pair decided to part by walking from opposing ends of the Great Wall of China until they met in the middle, and then said goodbye.

On the opening night of Abramović’s retrospective in 2010, the erstwhile lovers were reunited. The video above shows Abramović, sitting and steeling herself for her next silent interlocutor. Ulay approaches, and Abramović, a veteran of such difficult performances, looks up to what may have been the single most unexpected sight of the night, jolting her dignified composure. Their reunion is a deeply tender scene.

Marina and Ulay

Ever since I saw the video on YouTube, I wanted to know more about Marina's personal life and most important about her relation with Ulay. I couldn't understand how a couple could do what they've done. It's not easy to decide to break up without no reason.

There is a  a biography by James Wescott "When Marina Abramovic Dies", that was published in March 2010 during her residence at MoMa. 

Wescott worked with Marina on the book, and it's undoubtedly slanted a bit in her favor.

Unfortunately I didn't read the entire book, but it is highly recommend by several websites as "a balanced look at her work and her private life". 

From what I've read on the web, Marina and Ulay's relationship is the center of the book and of Marina's life - they were together for nearly twelve years, living and working together in intense intimacy. They had originally planned to walk towards each other from the opposite ends of the Great Wall of China, meet in the middle, and get married. When they actually did it ten years later they walked to each other over the course of ninety days, embraced, and went their separate ways.

Ulay married his translator from the trip shortly thereafter, and Marina returned to New York. I can't imagine the heartbreak she must have felt (not to mention the exhaustion) on that plane ride home. As she wept when they met on the Wall Ulay told her, "Don't cry; we have accomplished so much." And Marina would go on to accomplish much more without Ulay.

At 71 years old she is still glowing.

How I Became the Bomb's 'Ulay, Oh'

The clip featured the story of  Marina and Ulay, by the band Adonis EP..

Several sites (like this one, this one and this one ) got hold of the video, posting it under headlines like "The Power of Love" and "She Sat With Many Strangers That Day, But When This Man Shows Up I Got Goosebumps", "Love Is Blind. Until You See Your Ex Again!"

At the time of this post's publication, "Ulay, Oh" has received more than 34 million views and still counting

“I was fortunate enough to wander into the MoMA just in time for "The Artist Is Present". Equal parts unsettling, absurd, and profound; I couldn't shake the experience. Later, I stumbled onto the video wherein Ulay and Marina reunite and was overwhelmed with only one sentiment: this is a song.”

- HIBTB frontman Jon Burr

The Lyrics

There she was like a picture
There she was, she was just the same

There she was, he just had to know that she had forgot his name
Ulay, ulay, oh

Thinking back to the last time
On the wall as they turned away
Walking back, was it just a dream or did he hear her say?
Ulay, ulay, oh

Trying his best to forget her
Trying his best to just keep his stride
Kept his word, but he knows he heard
Ulay, ulay, oh
Ulay, ulay, oh

There she was like a picture
There she was, she was just the same
There she was, he just had to know she had not forgot his name
Ulay, ulay, oh
Ulay, ulay, oh
Ulay, ulay, oh
Ulay, ulay, oh
Ulay, ulay, oh
Ulay, ulay, oh
Ulay, ulay, oh

There he was like his picture
There he was, he was just the same
There he was, he could never know she could never give his name
Ulay, ulay, oh

Thinking back to the last time
On the wall as he turned away
Turning back, did he even know?
Did he ever hear her say
Ulay, ulay, oh

Trying her best to forget him
Trying her best just to keep her stride
Ulay, ulay, oh
Ulay, ulay, oh

There they were like the picture
There they were, they were just the same
There they were, but he walked away and her eyes could only say
Ulay, ulay, oh