Before you hit play on the video please read intro:
Artists Marina Abramovic and Ulay started an intense love affair and a renowned working relationship that spanned from 1976 to 1989 – sometimes performing art from the van they lived in.
In 1989 Marina and Ulay felt their relationship had run its course so decided to embark on a spiritual journey that would end their relationship. Walking the Great Wall of China, they started from opposite ends, Ulay from the Gobi Desert and Marina from the Yellow Sea. Each walked 2500 km and when they met in the middle they shared one final embrace and never saw each other again.
In 2010 Marina performed ‘The Artist Is Present’ at New York’s MoMA Museum. The show consisted of a minute of silence with each stranger sitting across from her.
Ulay arrived without her knowing it… what happens next is beautiful…
“Marina Abramović: born November 30, 1946 in Belgrade, Serbia) is a Serbian New York-based performance artist who began her career in the early 1970s. Active for over three decades, she has recently begun to describe herself as the “grandmother of performance art.” Abramović’s work explores the relationship between performer and audience, the limits of the body, and the possibilities of the mind.”-source
Though it seems that Marina and Ulay were destined to be like passing ships in the night, one can only imagine how extraordinary it must have been to come face to face once again. What I love so much about this video is that it captures the moment in such a palpable way and leaves the viewer with a deep sense of how time and space interplays within ones own life and interactions.
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