Performance artist Frank Uwe Laysiepen (also known as Ulay) passed away on March 2nd, 2020, at the age of 76.
Ulay was born in Germany in 1943. His name had a strong connection with Marina Abramović, the godmother of performance art. Before the acquaintance with Marina was made, Ulay was a photographer starting his career after moving to Amsterdam. He chose Polaroid as presentation medium of his art works. But why Polaroid? “I believe that using Polaroid is the closest I can get between my ideas and the reality, because it is instant.” he said. Instant, which is a main characteristic of performance art, could be presented by this technology of immediate generation of image.
Ulay photography creation series mostly were related to cross-dressing, nude, and self-injury. He took pictures of those behaviors by himself, and tried to explore the deeper meaning of genders, human body, and identities. Once in an interview, Ulay confessed that he became an orphan since 15. He in this situation had no one to ask or discuss about who he was. Consequently, he started to dress crossly and deconstruct himself in order to figure out his own identity. This kind of exploration, seeking the answer of “who I am’, continued in the rest of his creation.
In 1976, Ulay meets performance artist Marina Abramović, who shared the same birthday with him. Their destined encounter has then made the two names of theirs become one significant noun in the history of performance art. They were partners of both love and work relationships, and had challenging performance art works together between 1976 and 1988. “Relationship” between space and time, selves and others, male and female, are the mostly-discussed issues of their works. For example, Relation in Space (1976), Relation in Time (1977), Imponderabilia (1977), Breathing in/breathing out (1977/1978), and Rest Energy (1980), all included the discussion about how people get alone with each others and those chemistries happening meanwhile.
In the work Relation in Space, Ulay and Marina were 20 meters apart and ran towards each other. At first, they simply passed by and then got back to the starting point, but after harder and more intensive collisions, they finally fell down and laid on the ground. The microphone spread out the echo of the physical collisions in a spacious room while at the same time the minds collided. In 1977, Ulay and Marina published three works. One of those three was Relation in Time. In this work, they tied their hair together and sat back to back for more than 16 exhausting hours. They were one community and experienced the fade of time together. This work was re-presented in 2020 at Museum of Modern Art, New York, but by different couples invited by Marina. Another one was Imponderabilia was created in Bologna Museum of Art (Museo d'Arte Moderna di Bologna, MAMbo). In this work, Ulay and Marina were naked and stood at two side of a narrow entrance. Whenever somebody wanted to go through the entrance would make inevitable physical contact with them and had to choose between facing Ulay and Marina. This creation tested not only the artists but also the audience.
By 1980, Ulay and Marina released Rest Energy, a new work with more challenging exploration. Comparing to their other works, Rest Energy ist he shortest one. In Rest Energy, Ulay and Marina stood face to face with a bow and an poisoned arrow being held on tight on the string in between. Ulay held an arrow aiming Marina, and Marina held the bow on the other side. If any one of them let the hold go, the arrow would be shoot directly to Marina. The microphones on their chests recorded their fast heart beat for the later voice record. The performance art work lasted for only 4 minutes, but it seemed like eternity.
This significant couple in the world of performance art at that time were trying to break the burden of solid framework of one another’s objectivities and infuse them into one community. However, Ulay and Marina ended their 12-year relationship after a 90-day walk at the Great Wall. Before Lovers – the Great Wall Walk, the project in it the couple started walking at two terminals of the Great Wall and walk towards each other, was put into practice in 1983, they had planed it for 5 years. In this work, Marina started walking from Shanhaiguan on the east, and Ulay started from Gansu on the west. Firstly, they planed to get married when they saw each other after the 2500-kilometer walk. But when they really met, they hugged and announced the news of the end of their relationship. After saying good-bye, they went on and finished the rest of each’s own journeys alone till they reached the ends of the Great Wall.
After Ulay became single again, he resumed his old trade, photography. His works remained the ironic and experimental style, and Polaroid was used as presentation medium of his art works as usual.
In 2020, Marina performed The Artist is Present at Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York. The content of the performance theoretically resembled Nightsea Crossing, another art work she made with Ulay in 1980. But this time, it was the audience instead of Ulay sitting in front of her. One day, Ulay appeared at the table. They looked into each other’s eyes, and Marina started to have tears in hers. She broke the separation agreement they made and shook Ulay’s hand. That was the first collaboration after they broke up.
A few years after that dramatic encounter, Ulay sued Marina in 2015. He accused her of breaking an agreement they signed in 1999, failing to pay him the copyright royalties, and removing his name from the co-creation. Marina then was sentence to €250,000 compensation to Ulay by the Dutch court. Two years later, they reconciled in public at Louisiana Art Museum in Denmark. At the next year, Ulay announced that he would begin writing memoir at his solo exhibition Ulay: Renais sense at Boers-Li Gallery in New York. By the day he passed away, the book had not yet been published.
Ulay was diagnosed as having lymphoma in 2011 and received long-term treatment then. He didn't stop creating during the treatment and even had a project named Project Cancer. On the day he passed away, Marina posted on Facebook to mourn her former partner. “It is with great sadness I learned about my friend and former partner Ulay’s death today. He was an exceptional artist and human being, who will be deeply missed. On this day, it is comforting to know that his art and legacy will live on forever.” The encounter, the love, the collaboration, the conflict, and the reconciliation of Ulay and Marina was like a script that has already been written by the god of destiny. These two left their names on the history of performance art. The brilliant chapter they composed together now came to Finale. So does Ulay’s suffering from lymphoma in his later years and his legendary life.
Figure 1：Ulay Facebook © Photo by Primož Korošec
Figure 2 Top left：Ulay Facebook© Photo by Mike Sommer
Figure 2 Bottom left：SHE, 1973, courtesy of the artist and MB Art Agency , © the artist, Ulay Foundation
Figure right：Marina Abramović and ULAY. Imponderabilia. 1977/2010 , moma.org
