Acting
Ulay
Born November 30, 1943 · Solingen, Germany (age 82)
Ulay, born Frank Uwe Laysiepen, 1943 is a German artist, actor, and photographer, now based in Amsterdam, Holland, and Ljubljana, Slovenia. Ulay received international recognition for his work as a photographer, mainly in Polaroid, from the late 1960s, and later as a performance artist, including his collaborative performances with Marina Abramovic from 1976 to 1988.
Known For
Imponderabilia · 1977Imponderabilia
★ 3.31977
Movie
"Naked we stand opposite each other in the museum entrance. The public entering the museum has to turn sideways to move through the limited space between us. Everyone wanting to get past has to choose which one of us to face" – Marina Abramovich
Light/Dark · 1977Light/Dark
1977
Movie
Ulay and Abramović take turns hitting each other in the face, gradually increasing speed and intensity with each blow. This performance is best known for being the inspiration for New Order's "True Faith" music video.
Balance Proof · 1977Balance Proof
1977
Movie
Ulay and Abramović are standing holding a double-sided mirror between their bodies.
The Pink Biennal · 1976The Pink Biennal
1976
Movie
Television special of five episodes directed by Alfredo Di Laura dedicated to the exhibition "Attivo. Performance e Dibattiti" curated by Tommaso Trini.
4 Performances by Marina Abramovic 1975-1976 · 19964 Performances by Marina Abramovic 1975-1976
1996
MovieDocumentary
Documents four of Abramovic's solo works, exercises in which her body is the vehicle for a rigorous testing of the self — violently brushing her hair and her face, vocalizing until she can no longer breathe, intoning a stream-of-consciousness flow of memories, moving to a drumbeat until she literally drops from exhaustion.
The Way Between Two Points · 2010The Way Between Two Points
★ 5.02010
MovieDrama
El camino entre dos puntos (The way between two points) investigates Patagonia’s tainted nature. Here, where throughout the 20th century ever enhanced methods of oil recovery, have transformed an amorphous, ambivalent and hardly populated landscape into an uncanny site of man’s supposed mastery of nature, the film traces the ways of a man, who wanders the scenes aimlessly, bound by his own implication in the menacing mechanics of oil production but drawn physically to their coevally proceeding erasure by the rough and untamed nature of this seemingly self-subsisting land.
Marina Abramović & Ulay: No Predicted End · 2022Marina Abramović & Ulay: No Predicted End
★ 5.02022
MovieDocumentary
Thirty years after their separation, performance artists Marina Abramović and Frank Uwe 'Ulay' Laysiepen (1943-2020) agree to meet, for the first time on camera, for a raw and honest conversation about their life, art and legacy.
Freeing The Body · 1976Freeing The Body
1976
Movie
Marina Abramović Freeing the Body was performed at the Künstlerhaus Bethanien in Kreuzberg, where Abramović began dancing frantically to the sounds of a bongo player. During the early part of the performance, she still has plenty of energy, and she rocks her hips and upper body vigorously to and fro. Over the course of the six hours, exhaustion sets in. Abramović falls back on a single monotonous movement, now and then visibly exerting herself in an attempt to reivigorate her body. After a final convulsive movement, in which she tries to give her all for one last time, she allows herself to collapse onto the floor and remains lying there, completely exhausted. During the performance, Abramović's head was covered by a black scarf. In this way, the audience was not distracted by Abramović as a person or personality, and attention can be focused on the body, which, due to its anonymity, has become an abstraction.
Filmography
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