Marina Abramović was born on November 30, 1946 in Belgrade, Serbia. She was a performance artist that began her career in the early 1970’s. Abramović’s work explores the relationship between the performer and audience, the limits of the body and the possibilities of the mind.
In 1976, after moving to Amsterdam, Abramović met the West German performance artist Uwe Laysiepen, who went by the single name Ulay. Marina and Ulay collaborated during their time together and after several years of tense relations, Abramović and Ulay decided to end their relationship which would definitely explore the limits of their bodies and possibilities of their minds. The spiritual journey that would end their relationship would take place on the Great Wall of China. Each of them walked the Great Wall of China, starting from the two opposite ends and meeting in the middle. As Abramović described it: “That walk became a complete personal drama. Ulay started from the Gobi Desert and I from the Yellow Sea. After each of us walked 2500 km, we met in the middle and said goodbye.”
Between March 14 – May 31, 2010, the museum of Modern Art held a retrospective and performance recreation of Abramović’s work. Abramović performed “The Artist is Present”, a 736-hour and 30 minute static, silent piece, in which she sat immobile in the museum’s atrium, while spectator’s were invited to take turns sitting opposite her. Ulay made a surprise appearance at the opening night of the show – here is Abramović’s reaction to their reunion:
Such a truly remarkable moment – Love is powerful. They ended their relationship in such a unique and therapeutic manner and were brought together in the same unique manner, only this time, there were no words spoken – they only had the power of the heart and their emotions to speak for them.
Here is the link to the documentary film “The Artist is Present” – http://marinafilm.com/about-marina-abramovic
Marina Abramović will be bringing her life story to the stage in “The Life and Death of Marina Abramović. The North American premiere begins on June 14, 2013 at 7:30pm at the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts, Bluma Appel Theatre, Toronto, Onatario – Canada.
COALITION OF POSITIVE ENERGY 