As the art world mourns the passing of Frank Uwe Laysiepen, his unique, compelling legacy of disruptive performance, irreverent observation and subversive ideals will live long in the memory, Zhang Lei reports.
The world-renowned performance artist Frank Uwe Laysiepen died in his sleep in Ljubljana, Slovenia at the age of 76 on March 2, due to complications in treatment caused by his lymphatic cancer. Best known by his artistic pseudonym Ulay, the former partner of the "Mother of Performance Art" Marina Abramovic, and a pioneer of Polaroid photography, created a large number of works of depth and intensity, in which he pushes his performance boundaries that hit to heart of the humanitarian tensions that reshaped postwar Europe. On Ulay""s Facebook page, an eulogy posted by his studio hit a heartfelt note and sent a shock wave through the art world. "Ulay was incomparable. As a human being and as an artist. The gentlest soul, a giver. A pioneer, a provocateur, an activist, a mentor, a colleague, a friend, a father, a husband, family. A seeker of light. A lover of life. A traveler. A fighter. A brilliant thinker, who has been pushing limits and enduring pain. Selfless and fearless, ethical, elegant, witty. He, who has influenced so many. He will be deeply missed by his family, friends, the art community and the thousands of us, who he has so deeply touched and inspired. He influenced generations of artists and many more to come－his memory and legacy will live on forever through his work and the work of the Ulay Foundation." Ulay was born in a World War II air-raid shelter in 1943, when the German city of Solingen was under bombardment. His father died in the war, and his mother went crazy from grief, which led to Ulay""s solitude and reticence in his early years. He became an orphan at the age of 15. He married and had children and, at the age of 21, in the 1960s, he gave up everything and traveled to Amsterdam in the Netherlands by himself and joined the art group the Provos. There, he began to devote himself to photography and became a consultant to Polaroid, which gave him the opportunity to travel to London, Paris, Rome and New York. Ulay""s lens penetrated into the world of marginalized groups outside society""s mainstream, including transsexuals, transvestites and tramps. His photographs, with their sharp, taboo themes and realist style, shook the art world. The love-hate relationship between him and Marina Abramovic is also one of the most discussed and, arguably, famous love stories in modern art history. Abramovic responded to the artist""s death on Instagram: "It is with great sadness I learned about the death of my friend and former partner Ulay. 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." Ulay met Abramovic in 1976. The duo shared a birthday on Nov 30, and much more than that. Abramovic once said that "artists should not fall in love with another artist," but reneged on that statement, falling for Ulay, who embarked on his new artistic direction shortly afterward. Later that year, he stole Carl Spitzweg""s 1839 painting The Poor Poet from Berlin""s Neue National Galerie. He installed the painting in the home of a poor Turkish family in Berlin, and was later arrested and punished. The photographic documentation of the caper was captured by none other than his new girlfriend－it was the first collaboration between the two, and became one of Ulay""s most famous works: Irritation－There is a Criminal Touch to Art (1976). It is significant because it cleverly touches on many aspects of society including art, education, history, responsibility, and turbulent social situations. In fact, as early as December 1975, Ulay used a full-page advertisement in the German art magazine Art Forum to announce how he would steal a painting from the national gallery, and elaborated on it in 14 steps through his performance art. Love helped the two perform together and resulted in a career peak for both artist. With disheveled long hair, his tragic early life exuded a loneliness and melancholy that deeply attracted Abramovic. They loved each other and performed together. Again, in 1976, their piece Relation in Space was a hit－literally so, in the case of the artists. The couple, naked, would start trotting toward each other from a distance of 20 meters, rubbing briefly, and returning to the same place again and again. Each return produced a more intense collision that resulted in Abramovic being knocked down half an hour later. They used their bodies to express the ups and downs of emotions between men and women and their gender differences. In order to produce better results, during the performance, the sound of a physical collision was transmitted through a speaker. Soon, Abramovic returned to Belgrade to divorce her husband, and began a life of "cooperation" with Uray. Their inherently restless hearts made them tired of performing in the city""s art gallery. The two decided to move out of their apartment, buy a convertible, and start a life as nomadic, wandering artists. Abramovic and Ulay created a manifesto for their performance art in that convertible: there is no fixed place to live; always on the run; direct connection; local relations; self-selection; exceeding limits; challenging risks. In the following 12 years, until 1988, they created a series of famous works under the theme of "Art Vital," the physical embodiment of that manifesto. These two free spirits drove a Citroen caravan back and forth across the Netherlands, Germany and Italy. They lived an ascetic life in the caravan, where their perennial residence was a 1.5 meter mattress. They helped farmers graze their animals at 5 am in exchange for the necessary food, and Abramovic knitted sweaters for herself and Ulay during the journey. In 1980, inspired by nature, the two simply sold their vehicle and went to Australia to explore life with indigenous tribes and seek more inspiration. This long, "artsy" lifestyle, however, inevitably took its toll and the relationship between the two grew tense. One night in Australia, Abramovic and Ulay, were awakened and found to be surrounded by hundreds of baby kangaroos. Abramovic recalled, "Looking at them, you feel like you are in heaven." Following a prophetic dream, she ended romantic relations with Uray. They were born, like twin flames, on the same day, and their love, which had burned like a blazing heat, had waned to just flowing like a trickle that never runs dry. At 10:47 am on March 30, 1988, Abramovic ascended the Shanhaiguan section of the Great Wall and set off from east to west, while Ulay did the same at the Jiayuguan section in Gansu province and traversed east. Ninety days later, the two met at Erlang Mountain, a rendezvous point shrouded with mystique, strewn with Taoist, Buddhist, and Confucian temples. There, they announced their breakup due to "differences in artistic concepts and life". After a total of 2,500 kilometers, the two""s original marriage plan turned into a wave of farewell and their final cooperative work Great Wall Walk. In the past two decades, the pair who have loved and abused each other, never ceased to be entangled, even in the form of a lawsuit against each other for the ownership of their common works. In 2010, the New York Museum of Modern Art witnessed their reunion. While Abramovic was performing the work The Artist is Present, Ulay suddenly appeared and sat opposite her. Abramovic broke the rules, clasped his hands, and burst into tears. After dozen seconds, Ulay got up and left. And that falling of tears, once again, made the whole world realize the sincere emotion between the two. "Everyone goes somewhere. It""s not just me. Everyone ends up somewhere. Death is the ultimate answer. But life is absolute," Ulay once said. Contact the writer at zhanglei@chinadaily.com.cn
Clockwise from top left: AAA-AAA, 1978; Relation in Space, 1976; Relation in Time, 1977; Marina Abramovic and Ulay at Marina Abramovic The Artist is Present at MoMA on March 9, 2010 in New York. SCOTT RUDD/NEWSCOM/CHINA DAILY
Ulay in Berlin on Sept 16, 2016. IMAGO
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The world-renowned performance artist Frank Uwe Laysiepen died in his sleep in Ljubljana, Slovenia at the age of 76 on March 2, due to complications in treatment caused by his lymphatic cancer. Best known by his artistic pseudonym Ulay, the former partner of the "Mother of Performance Art" Marina Abramovic, and a pioneer of Polaroid photography, created a large number of works of depth and intensity, in which he pushes his performance boundaries that hit to heart of the humanitarian tensions that reshaped postwar Europe. On Ulay""s Facebook page, an eulogy posted by his studio hit a heartfelt note and sent a shock wave through the art world. "Ulay was incomparable. As a human being and as an artist. The gentlest soul, a giver. A pioneer, a provocateur, an activist, a mentor, a colleague, a friend, a father, a husband, family. A seeker of light. A lover of life. A traveler. A fighter. A brilliant thinker, who has been pushing limits and enduring pain. Selfless and fearless, ethical, elegant, witty. He, who has influenced so many. He will be deeply missed by his family, friends, the art community and the thousands of us, who he has so deeply touched and inspired. He influenced generations of artists and many more to come－his memory and legacy will live on forever through his work and the work of the Ulay Foundation." Ulay was born in a World War II air-raid shelter in 1943, when the German city of Solingen was under bombardment. His father died in the war, and his mother went crazy from grief, which led to Ulay""s solitude and reticence in his early years. He became an orphan at the age of 15. He married and had children and, at the age of 21, in the 1960s, he gave up everything and traveled to Amsterdam in the Netherlands by himself and joined the art group the Provos. There, he began to devote himself to photography and became a consultant to Polaroid, which gave him the opportunity to travel to London, Paris, Rome and New York. Ulay""s lens penetrated into the world of marginalized groups outside society""s mainstream, including transsexuals, transvestites and tramps. His photographs, with their sharp, taboo themes and realist style, shook the art world. The love-hate relationship between him and Marina Abramovic is also one of the most discussed and, arguably, famous love stories in modern art history. Abramovic responded to the artist""s death on Instagram: "It is with great sadness I learned about the death of my friend and former partner Ulay. 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." Ulay met Abramovic in 1976. The duo shared a birthday on Nov 30, and much more than that. Abramovic once said that "artists should not fall in love with another artist," but reneged on that statement, falling for Ulay, who embarked on his new artistic direction shortly afterward. Later that year, he stole Carl Spitzweg""s 1839 painting The Poor Poet from Berlin""s Neue National Galerie. He installed the painting in the home of a poor Turkish family in Berlin, and was later arrested and punished. The photographic documentation of the caper was captured by none other than his new girlfriend－it was the first collaboration between the two, and became one of Ulay""s most famous works: Irritation－There is a Criminal Touch to Art (1976). It is significant because it cleverly touches on many aspects of society including art, education, history, responsibility, and turbulent social situations. In fact, as early as December 1975, Ulay used a full-page advertisement in the German art magazine Art Forum to announce how he would steal a painting from the national gallery, and elaborated on it in 14 steps through his performance art. Love helped the two perform together and resulted in a career peak for both artist. With disheveled long hair, his tragic early life exuded a loneliness and melancholy that deeply attracted Abramovic. They loved each other and performed together. Again, in 1976, their piece Relation in Space was a hit－literally so, in the case of the artists. The couple, naked, would start trotting toward each other from a distance of 20 meters, rubbing briefly, and returning to the same place again and again. Each return produced a more intense collision that resulted in Abramovic being knocked down half an hour later. They used their bodies to express the ups and downs of emotions between men and women and their gender differences. In order to produce better results, during the performance, the sound of a physical collision was transmitted through a speaker. Soon, Abramovic returned to Belgrade to divorce her husband, and began a life of "cooperation" with Uray. Their inherently restless hearts made them tired of performing in the city""s art gallery. The two decided to move out of their apartment, buy a convertible, and start a life as nomadic, wandering artists. Abramovic and Ulay created a manifesto for their performance art in that convertible: there is no fixed place to live; always on the run; direct connection; local relations; self-selection; exceeding limits; challenging risks. In the following 12 years, until 1988, they created a series of famous works under the theme of "Art Vital," the physical embodiment of that manifesto. These two free spirits drove a Citroen caravan back and forth across the Netherlands, Germany and Italy. They lived an ascetic life in the caravan, where their perennial residence was a 1.5 meter mattress. They helped farmers graze their animals at 5 am in exchange for the necessary food, and Abramovic knitted sweaters for herself and Ulay during the journey. In 1980, inspired by nature, the two simply sold their vehicle and went to Australia to explore life with indigenous tribes and seek more inspiration. This long, "artsy" lifestyle, however, inevitably took its toll and the relationship between the two grew tense. One night in Australia, Abramovic and Ulay, were awakened and found to be surrounded by hundreds of baby kangaroos. Abramovic recalled, "Looking at them, you feel like you are in heaven." Following a prophetic dream, she ended romantic relations with Uray. They were born, like twin flames, on the same day, and their love, which had burned like a blazing heat, had waned to just flowing like a trickle that never runs dry. At 10:47 am on March 30, 1988, Abramovic ascended the Shanhaiguan section of the Great Wall and set off from east to west, while Ulay did the same at the Jiayuguan section in Gansu province and traversed east. Ninety days later, the two met at Erlang Mountain, a rendezvous point shrouded with mystique, strewn with Taoist, Buddhist, and Confucian temples. There, they announced their breakup due to "differences in artistic concepts and life". After a total of 2,500 kilometers, the two""s original marriage plan turned into a wave of farewell and their final cooperative work Great Wall Walk. In the past two decades, the pair who have loved and abused each other, never ceased to be entangled, even in the form of a lawsuit against each other for the ownership of their common works. In 2010, the New York Museum of Modern Art witnessed their reunion. While Abramovic was performing the work The Artist is Present, Ulay suddenly appeared and sat opposite her. Abramovic broke the rules, clasped his hands, and burst into tears. After dozen seconds, Ulay got up and left. And that falling of tears, once again, made the whole world realize the sincere emotion between the two. "Everyone goes somewhere. It""s not just me. Everyone ends up somewhere. Death is the ultimate answer. But life is absolute," Ulay once said. Contact the writer at zhanglei@chinadaily.com.cn
Clockwise from top left: AAA-AAA, 1978; Relation in Space, 1976; Relation in Time, 1977; Marina Abramovic and Ulay at Marina Abramovic The Artist is Present at MoMA on March 9, 2010 in New York. SCOTT RUDD/NEWSCOM/CHINA DAILY
Ulay in Berlin on Sept 16, 2016. IMAGO
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