Friday Inspiration – Marina Abramovic e Ulay – MOMA 2010
Thank to a beautiful photographer who is an inspiration to me, Deb Schwedhelm, I share this video with you.
If you have the time to go HERE and read about Marina and her story, I highly suggest you take the time. She is an incredible artist. She in fact refers to herself as the “Grandmother of Performance Art”. As I read about some of her works of art, I was captivated to learn more about her.
She has gone to incredible depths as an artist to understand herself and the humans around her. She partnered with Ulay in 1976 and began a 12 year relationship exploring who they were together, actually as one being. In the end, when they were deciding to separate, they acted out a vision that Marina had in a dream. They each started at opposite ends of the Great Wall of China, Marina at the Yellow Sea and Ulay fromthe Gobi Desert, and walked to meet at the middle. Upon meeting, each walking 25oo km, they met in the middle and said goodbye.
In her words she described the process by saying, “We needed a certain form of ending, after this huge distance walking towards each other. It is very human. It is in a way more dramatic, more like a film ending … Because in the end you are really alone, whatever you do.” (courtesy of Wikipedia)
They never saw each other again, until this piece in 2010, 22 years later.
For me, to watch her sit, being with people one after another and then to see him. To see the recognition she has for him. All of the longing and pain and beauty and love. To watch her almost not even be able to look at the woman who sits next, because she wants to see his face in that chair. It brought me to tears. Sobbing tears.
I hope you find some inspiration in this today. Some connection to the human spirit, a connection to your own spirit.
ox
Laura
Addendum: I’ve just been contacted by someone from the website Artsy. It is June 24th, 2015, 2 years after I posted this article. They reached out to ask if I would place a link to their page on Marina Abramovic here. I looked at the websites mission statement, which is “…to make all the world’s art accessible to anyone with an Internet connection.” That sounds like a good plan to me. And for them to have found my post 2 years later, that says it’s good exposure for all of us!
