Two renowned performance artists embarked on a unique journey along the Great Wall of China in 1988. Serbian performance artist Marina Abramovic and German artist Frank Uwe Laysiepen, known as Ulay, started from opposite ends, to meet in the middle and marry in what would be a symbol of their enduring love and artistic collaboration. However, their ambitious trek, titled The Lovers, became a metaphor for their separation.
Abramovic and Ulay met in Amsterdam in 1976 on their shared birthday, November 30, and there was an instant connection. Ulay described Abramovic as “witchy and otherworldly,” while she found him “wild and exciting.” They became inseparable, referring to themselves as a “two-headed body.”
They spent years performing together, often in physically demanding and extreme situations, the Guardian reported. One of their famous performances, Rest Energy, involved Ulay holding a drawn bow aimed at Abramovic’s heart. Meanwhile, the tension in their performances mirrored the tension in their relationship.
For years, the couple lived a nomadic life, travelling in a van and performing in small towns and villages. As their relationship deepened, they envisioned The Lovers as their ultimate artistic expression – a journey of emotional and physical endurance, culminating in a symbolic wedding at the centre of the Great Wall. But that didn’t go as planned.
However, the project was fraught with challenges from the start. Chinese bureaucracy slowed the process as the couple faced years of delays. They were forced to repeatedly apply for permissions, deal with visa rejections and convince the Chinese authorities that walking the Great Wall as an art project was indeed a legitimate endeavour. By the time the walk was finally approved in 1988, five years had passed. Both Abramovic and Ulay had changed.
When the walk began on March 30, 1988, Abramovic started her trek from the Bohai Sea, known as the “dragon’s head,” while Ulay began from the Gobi Desert at the “dragon’s tail”. Abramovic’s journey was arduous, with treacherous terrain, steep mountains, and occasional near-death experiences. She walked through remote villages, seeking out local legends from the elders, many of which revolved around dragons. Ulay walked through desert landscapes. His journey was also not without its own challenges.
When the two finally met after 90 days and roughly 2,000 km each, it was not for a wedding, but for a breakup. On a stone bridge in Shenmu, Shaanxi province, they embraced but the affection was bittersweet.
Both changed during the long wait for the journey to begin. They both had affairs, communication broke down and the pressures of fame affected them in different ways. Abramovic embraced the success and recognition their work was getting, while Ulay, a self-described anarchist, shunned the commercialisation of their art.
Their reunion came years later, in 2010, during Abramovic’s retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, titled The Artist Is Present. In the performance, Abramovic sat silently for 750 hours, inviting visitors to sit across from her and share a moment of silent connection.
On the opening night, Ulay made a surprise appearance and sat across from each other for the first time in over two decades. They locked eyes, smiled and started crying. In a break from the rules of the performance, Marina Abramovic reached out and took Ulay’s hands.
After 22 years apart, their silent interaction, filled with emotion, touched millions.
