Marina met Ulay in 1976, after moving to Amsterdam. Their collaboration was meant, above all, to explore artistic identity and the ego.
To create 'Breathing In/Breathing Out' the two artists devised a piece in which they connected their mouths and took each other's exhaled breaths until they had used up all of the available oxygen. Seventeen minutes after the beginning of the performance they both fell to the floor unconscious, their lungs having filled with carbon dioxide. This personal piece explore the idea of an individual's ability to absorb the life of another person, exchanging and destroying it. In 'Imponderabilia' two performers, both completely nude, stand in a doorway. The public must squeeze between them in order to pass, and in doing so choose which one of them to face.
Things eventually began to fall apart and in 1998 the two ended their relationship by walking the Great Wall of China. They started from opposite ends, Ulay from the desert of Shanhaiguan in the east and Marina from the western waters of Jiayuguan. They walked toward each other for three months and met in the middle for a final embrace.
Each of us walked two and a half thousand kilometers to meet in the middle and depart from each other and continue working as a single artist. It was very dramatic and a very painful ending.
The journey and reunion were originally purposed to unite them in marriage. Instead they broke-up and his appearance at her exhibit in 2010 was a surprise.
[What kills me is that I actually saw this exhibit. Well more like happened upon it -- I was at the MoMA for something else. I remember being confused and brushing it off as something ridiculous, stopping for a minute and quickly walking by. This video helped me to understand it better and I wish I had taken the time to do so then.]
