“Death Itself” is a mesmerising performance which best illustrates human relationships. In it, they inhaled each other’s exhalations until they ran out of oxygen. After seventeen minutes, both fell unconscious because their lungs were full of carbon dioxide. The performance symbolised the ability to absorb the other’s life, changing and destroying it.
In 1980, the pair of conceptual artists created a performance, Rest Energy, in which Abramovic held a bow and Ulay held a taut bow of an arrow aimed straight at her heart.
The concentration was immense – any misstep could have cost lives. The work lasted four minutes and twenty seconds and symbolised boundless trust between the partners.
The performance brought them together again, but it was no longer a collaboration. Ulay was present in it as a spectator, which he has been for the last few years.
The love story between the two artists did not end well – a couple of years later, Ulay sued his former lover and demanded that she pay royalties for the use of their joint work.
They finally reconciled only in 2017, 30 years after the break-up, at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art. In 2020 Ulay died.
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A whole world on the tip of a pencil. The story of an artist who proved that true art has no limits and that it is never too late to start all over again.
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A whole world on the tip of a pencil. The story of an artist who proved that true art has no limits and that it is never too late to start all over again.
