Marina Abramović and Ulay Are Reuniting to Write a Joint Memoir

Marina Abramović and Ulay Are Reuniting to Write a Joint Memoir

artnet News | Sarah Cascone

The greatest duo in the history of performance art, Ulay and Marina Abramović, will reunite to write a book about their 12-year partnership. “There are so many unbelievable anecdotes which most people don’t know, and I think they’re worth reading—they will sound like fairy tales,” Ulay told artnet News at the opening of his current exhibition at New York’s Boers-Li Gallery last week. He had arrived in the city earlier in the day, having checked out of the hospital in Amsterdam just the day before. “I feel a little bit like a ghost,” but missing the show wasn’t an option, Ulay said. “I didn’t want to disappoint anyone.” Abramović has agreed to the new collaboration, Ulay added, admitting that he was excited about the prospect of the pair teaming up again.

“Marina had an opening two weeks ago at the museum in Bonn. I was there, and I also gave a public talk. During the talk, it dawned on me. ‘Hey, there’s something we didn’t do: writing our memoirs,” the artist said of the project’s inspiration. “Therefore, we maybe meet in August to get together for 10 days or two weeks to work on this manuscript.” Not too long ago, such a project would have seemed inconceivable. Following a dramatic split atop the Great Wall of China in 1988—a 90-day-long performance art piece titled The Great Wall Walk that was originally planned to end with a wedding—the pair did not speak for decades…read more

Image: Photo courtesy of Boers-Li Gallery, by Ember Hua.