Video and Performance: Marina Abramović and Ulay
Video and Performance: Marina Abramović and Ulay brings together documentation of seminal works by Marina Abramović (b. 1946, Belgrade) and Ulay (Frank Uwe Laysiepen, 1943–2020), whose collaboration between 1976 and 1988 became a defining partnership in performance art. Using their bodies as instruments of experimentation, they explored physical and psychological endurance, intimacy, gender and the boundaries between art and life.
In AAA-AAA, Relation in Time, Breathing In / Breathing Out and Rest Energy, the artists tested the limits of voice, breath and physical endurance, examining interdependence, vulnerability, trust and control. Through sustained actions and carefully constructed situations, their performances transformed the relationship between two individuals into an investigation of identity, power and mutual dependence.
The programme also includes The Lovers: Great Wall Walk (1988), the final major project of their collaboration. Walking towards one another from opposite ends of the Great Wall of China, Abramović and Ulay undertook a journey that culminated in their meeting and the end of their artistic and personal partnership. Together, these works reveal the enduring significance of their practice in the history of performance art and moving image.
Marina Abramović (b. 1946, Belgrade, Serbia) is a pioneering figure in performance art whose practice explores endurance, risk, presence, ritual and the relationship between performer and audience. Her work has been presented internationally at major museums and biennials. Major retrospectives include The Artist Is Present at MoMA, New York (2010) and The Cleaner, which toured European institutions including Moderna Museet, Stockholm, and Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk (2017–18). More recent exhibitions include her major retrospective at Kunsthaus Zürich (2024–25) and Balkan Erotic Epic. The Exhibition at Gropius Bau, Berlin (2026).
Ulay (Frank Uwe Laysiepen, 1943–2020, Solingen, Germany) was a German artist whose practice encompassed photography, performance and conceptual art. His early work explored identity, the body and photographic representation before his twelve-year collaboration with Abramović. His work was presented internationally, including in the major retrospective ULAY LIFE-SIZED at Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt (2016). Recent exhibitions include Ulay: The Turbulent Body at SPURS Gallery, Beijing (2025) and Ulay, Ulay & Abramović at Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin (2026–27).
Year: 1995
Artists: Marina Abramović and Ulay
Programme: Video
Curated by: Film and Video Umbrella
Format: Single-Channel
Support: Arts Council England
Country: United Kingdom