From March 14 to May 31, 2010, MoMA announced, “Abramović will sit in silence at a table in the Museum’s Donald B. and Catherine C. Marron Atrium,” “passively inviting visitors to take the seat across from her for as long as they choose,” “for a total of over 700 hours.” The Village Voice later put her time in the chair at “a total of 736 hours and 30 minutes.” MoMA lists her as “Marina Abramović (Yugoslav, b. 1946)”; she “began her work as a performance artist in the early 1970s,” the Louisiana Channel says. “The unofficial total for the number of sitters was 1,545,” MoMA’s Inside/Out blog wrote in June 2010.
For twelve years Ulay was “Marina Abramović’s partner and collaborator,” Artforum wrote, in “their 12-year partnership in art and life beginning in 1976,” as AnOther put it. “They lived in a Citroën van for more than ten years,” The Art Newspaper says; Time Out New York described them “wandering Europe in a hippie van for five years.” Then, “In April 1988, Abramovic and fellow artist Ulay started from opposite ends of the Great Wall of China,” The Art Newspaper reported: Abramović “on the wall’s east side by the Yellow Sea and Ulay on its west, in the Gobi Desert,” in Artforum’s words. M+ says she set out “from Shanhaiguan, the wall’s easternmost point, in Qinhuangdao, known colloquially as the ‘dragon’s head’,” and Ulay “from the ‘dragon’s tail’ at Jiayuguan.”
“Though they initially planned to marry when they met in the middle, by the time The Lovers was executed their relationship had fallen apart,” Artforum wrote. “Three months after they had started, the pair finally met, on 27 June 1988,” The Art Newspaper says. “They embraced on the wall for the last time. ‘And then we said goodbye.’” The embrace was “a signal that they would not marry, but end their twelve-year professional and personal partnership instead,” in M+’s words, and “Their silent meeting on the Great Wall became their final farewell,” Artforum wrote.
Twenty-two years later came “the show’s opening night,” as Blouin Artinfo reported a week afterward: Ulay, “The artist’s former lover and collaborator of 13 years,” “arrived and sat across from her, clasping her hands as the crowd looked on.” The curator, Klaus Biesenbach, told Artinfo that “Ulay was our guest of honor at the opening and we knew he would attend,” and that “They met and talked the morning of the opening,” but “we didn’t know when he would be in the Atrium or if he would have the opportunity to sit.” “When Ulay arrived, Abramović looked shocked then smiled demurely. He shook his head and her eyes filled with tears,” AnOther wrote. “At the end of their encounter Abramović extended her hands across the table towards Ulay, who clasped them,” and “The audience broke out into applause.”
“I never forgot that moment in MoMA when I broke my rules, and I never break my rules, ever, ever, ever,” Abramović told the Louisiana Channel, in interviews filmed in August 2018. Ulay “has died at the age of 76 in Ljubljana, Slovenia,” AnOther reported on March 2, 2020.
Fact check
The facts and where they come from
- Over 1,500 strangers sat facing her, but only one made her break her rules. MoMA (Inside/Out): “The unofficial total for the number of sitters was 1,545.” MoMA press release: “passively inviting visitors to take the seat across from her for as long as they choose.” Abramović, to the Louisiana Channel: “I never forgot that moment in MoMA when I broke my rules, and I never break my rules, ever, ever, ever.” 3111
- Her name is Marina Abramović. MoMA: “Marina Abramović (Yugoslav, b. 1946).” Louisiana Channel: “She began her work as a performance artist in the early 1970s.” 211
- In 2010, she sat silent at the Museum of Modern Art for 736 hours. MoMA press release: “from March 14 to May 31, 2010”; “Abramović will sit in silence at a table in the Museum’s Donald B. and Catherine C. Marron Atrium”; “for a total of over 700 hours.” The Village Voice: “Marina Abramovic sat in a chair for a total of 736 hours and 30 minutes.” 14
- On opening night, a man she once loved was in the crowd. Blouin Artinfo (March 16, 2010): “on the show’s opening night last Tuesday”; “The artist’s former lover and collaborator of 13 years, Ulay, arrived and sat across from her.” Klaus Biesenbach, the curator: “Ulay was our guest of honor at the opening and we knew he would attend.” 5
- For twelve years, Ulay was her partner in art and love. Artforum: “Marina Abramović’s partner and collaborator for twelve years.” AnOther: “their 12-year partnership in art and life beginning in 1976.” 87
- They ended it in 1988, on the Great Wall of China. The Art Newspaper: “In April 1988, Abramovic and fellow artist Ulay started from opposite ends of the Great Wall of China.” Artforum: “Their silent meeting on the Great Wall became their final farewell.” 98
- She walked from one end, he from the other. Artforum: “Abramović began the three-month journey ... on the wall’s east side by the Yellow Sea and Ulay on its west, in the Gobi Desert.” M+: “Abramović walked … westward from Shanhaiguan, the wall’s easternmost point, in Qinhuangdao, known colloquially as the ‘dragon’s head’. Ulay walked the same distance eastward from the ‘dragon’s tail’ at Jiayuguan.” 810
- They had planned to marry when they met in the middle. Artforum: “Though they initially planned to marry when they met in the middle, by the time The Lovers was executed their relationship had fallen apart.” The Art Newspaper: “They aimed to walk from either end of the wall, and, when they met, immediately marry.” 89
- After three months, they hugged and said goodbye. The Art Newspaper: “Three months after they had started, the pair finally met, on 27 June 1988”; “They embraced on the wall for the last time. ‘And then we said goodbye.’” M+: “the couple embraced—a signal that they would not marry, but end their twelve-year professional and personal partnership instead.” 910
- Now, 22 years later, he sat down across from her. Blouin Artinfo (March 16, 2010): “… Ulay, arrived and sat across from her, clasping her hands as the crowd looked on.” The Art Newspaper (on the Great Wall): “the pair finally met, on 27 June 1988.” 59
- She looked shocked, then smiled, and her eyes filled with tears. AnOther: “When Ulay arrived, Abramović looked shocked then smiled demurely. He shook his head and her eyes filled with tears.” 6
- She reached across the table, and he took her hands. AnOther: “At the end of their encounter Abramović extended her hands across the table towards Ulay, who clasped them.” 6
- The room burst into applause. AnOther: “The audience broke out into applause.” 6
- “I broke my rules, and I never break my rules, ever,” she said later. Abramović, to the Louisiana Channel (filmed in August 2018): “I never forgot that moment in MoMA when I broke my rules, and I never break my rules, ever, ever, ever.” 11
Sources
- Marina Abramović: The Artist Is Present, press release (March 6, 2010) MoMA
- Marina Abramović: The Artist Is Present, March 14–May 31, 2010 (exhibition page) MoMA
- Analyzing Abramović (Inside/Out, June 11, 2010) MoMA
- Pictures of You (October 10, 2012) The Village Voice
- Klaus Biesenbach on the Abramovic/Ulay Reunion (March 16, 2010) Blouin Artinfo (Internet Archive copy)
- When Marina Abramović and Ulay Moved the Art World to Tears (Miss Rosen, March 3, 2020) AnOther
- Ulay, Pioneer of Polaroid and Performance Art, Has Died at 76 (March 2, 2020) AnOther
- Ulay (1943–2020) (March 2, 2020) Artforum
- ‘It was painful, it was hardship’: Marina Abramovic on her ill-fated, epic walk towards Ulay across the Great Wall of China (Tom Seymour, September 17, 2019) The Art Newspaper
- The Lovers (collection entry) M+, Hong Kong
- Marina Abramović & Ulay: On Their Meeting at MoMA (2022; interviews filmed in August 2018) Louisiana Channel
- Q&A: Marina Abramovic (June 12, 2012) Time Out New York
Notes
Seeing him again: popular retellings say she hadn’t seen him in 22 years; AnOther wrote that “They hadn’t spoken in more than 20 years,” and Artforum that they “did not see each other again until Ulay’s surprise appearance.” But the curator told Blouin Artinfo a week after the opening: “Marina and Ulay have been in contact sporadically over the years. This past summer, they saw each other for the first time in several years on the occasion of an interview. They met and talked the morning of the opening.” The Short’s “twenty-two years later” counts from the Great Wall in 1988, and it never says she didn’t know he was there.
Staged? Blouin Artinfo wrote that the reunion “looked suspiciously well choreographed”; Ulay said in 2018, “There was no concept for it. There was no preparation. There was no rehearsal” (Louisiana Channel). The Short takes no side.
The rules: retellings often list “no talking, no touching” rules for sitters; we found no MoMA page that states a no-touching rule, so the Short uses only her own word, “rules.”
Hours and sitters: MoMA announced “over 700 hours”; 736 hours and 30 minutes is The Village Voice’s figure (2012), the one most later coverage uses. The 1,545 sitters are MoMA’s own “unofficial total”; other reports say about 1,400 or 1,500. The Short says “over fifteen hundred.”
The date: Blouin Artinfo, writing on Tuesday, March 16, 2010, put the reunion on “the show’s opening night last Tuesday,” March 9; the run itself was March 14 to May 31 (MoMA).
Numbers that differ: twelve years together, 1976 to 1988 (Artforum, AnOther, M+), though Blouin Artinfo wrote 13. The distances walked on the Great Wall and the years they lived in the van differ by source, so the Short gives no number for either.
Marina Abramović is alive; Ulay died in 2020. Only MoMA’s pages, the curator’s words, published reporting and the artists’ own published words are used; nothing here goes into their private lives, and later disputes are left out.
Pictures: no free photo shows the opening night, Ulay at MoMA, or the two of them together, so the photos of the performance are from other days of the run. Marina Abramović is in her white dress at MoMA on May 20, 2010 (Thousandrobots), and facing a sitter, a museum visitor, on May 9, 2010, with the atrium seen from above the same day (two photos by Antonio Zugaldia); in her navy dress in 2010, the exact day not given (Shelby Lessig); and at the table on March 10, 2010, the day after the opening night, cropped to leave out the visitor across from her (Andrés Nieto Porras). Ulay is seen in Amsterdam on December 15, 1972 (Hans Peters / Anefo, Nationaal Archief). The Museum of Modern Art on West 53rd Street is seen on August 21, 2021, years after the show (Ajay Suresh). The Citroën van they lived in is shown at Palazzo Strozzi in Florence on December 30, 2018 (Manuelarosi). Old Dragon’s Head at Shanhaiguan, the wall’s eastern end by the sea, is seen on March 7, 2015 (S.flaischlen), and the Great Wall on the Black Mountains near Jiayu Pass, at its western end, on May 7, 2016 (Dan Lundberg); neither is from 1988. Abramović is at a screening of the film about the show at the Viennale in Vienna on October 26, 2012 (Manfred Werner / Tsui). The visitors in these photos are not named.
Photo credits
The archive photos in this story
The photographs and illustrations in this story are in the public domain or shared under open licenses; each one is credited below with its license. Tap one to enlarge it, or follow the link to its Wikimedia Commons page for the full record. The narration, captions and graphics in the Short are our own; its music and sound effects are credited below.
Music and sound effects
Music: Schumann, Kinderszenen, Op. 15: No. 1 'Of Foreign Lands and Peoples (Musopen, public domain); Mussorgsky, Pictures at an Exhibition: IV. Bydlo (piano) (Musopen, public domain); Dvorak, Symphony No. 9 'From the New World': II. Largo (Musopen, public domain).
Sound effects: Freesound, CC0.
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