Ulay (born Frank Uwe Laysiepen) began his career by taking explicit Polaroid pictures that could match Abramovic in content and ambition. Both artists had a fascination with the obscure and often explored self-mutilation and identity within their works. Ulay and Marina shared the same birthday, and this fact formed their symbiotic relationship that would create an era of collaborative performance art like no other. During her time with Ulay, Marina gained much notoriety for their strange and explorative pair performances. The two would take things to the extreme. They would stand in doorways nude and have others walk in between them. They would run into each other nude until they collapsed. For one piece they inhaled each other’s cO2 until they could no longer breath (Breathing in/Breathing out). They lived out of a van for five years and simply traveled and made art.
Marina and Ulay created art together for 12 years. She had left her first husband at 29 to run away and be with Ulay. Their final piece of art was created on March 30, 1988 where they both traveled the length of the Great Wall of China and met in the middle. Once they reached the center of the wall, they ended their relationship upon the news of Ulay having a child with another woman. Marina states “people put so much effort into starting a relationship and so little effort into ending one”. The ending of her relationship began her third phase of work and a focus back on herself again.
Marina and Ulay created art together for 12 years. She had left her first husband at 29 to run away and be with Ulay. Their final piece of art was created on March 30, 1988 where they both traveled the length of the Great Wall of China and met in the middle. Once they reached the center of the wall, they ended their relationship upon the news of Ulay having a child with another woman. Marina states “people put so much effort into starting a relationship and so little effort into ending one”. The ending of her relationship began her third phase of work and a focus back on herself again.