Renowned Serbian performance artist Marina Abramović has inaugurated a groundbreaking exhibition in Slovenia that offers an unprecedented look into her transformative collaboration with her late former partner, German artist Ulay. The show, which opened Friday at Ljubljana's modern art museum Cukrarna, features hundreds of previously unseen documents, recordings, and artifacts from their legendary partnership.
For this intimate exhibition, Abramović granted curators extraordinary access to her private archives in the United States, allowing them to select even the "most intimate" documents, recordings, and pieces for public display. The renowned performance artist, known for pushing both her body and audiences to extreme limits, told journalists at the opening that the exhibition traces her 12-year collaboration with Ulay, which began when they first met in 1976 and continued until their eventual split.
Visitors to the exhibition can explore hundreds of videos, photographs, and sketches from their groundbreaking collaboration, many being displayed for the first time anywhere. The show also features deeply personal documents including diary pages and private letters that offer insight into their artistic and personal relationship. Co-curator Alenka Gregorič explained to reporters that during their collaboration, "they were not even remotely thinking about changing the course of history or becoming a 20th century canon."
Gregorič and her curatorial team spent over two years meticulously exploring Abramović's archives and Ulay's legacy materials in Ljubljana, where he passed away in 2020. They were granted unlimited access to personal documents, audio recordings, drawings, and performance plans that were never originally intended for publication. This comprehensive approach has resulted in an exhibition that provides the most complete picture yet of one of contemporary art's most influential partnerships.
The centerpiece of Cukrarna's main hall is an old black Citroën van that served as the couple's mobile "home" starting in 1976, when they embarked on what they called their "nomadic life." This vehicle became central to their artistic practice and unconventional lifestyle. Abramović reflected on their approach at the inauguration, telling journalists, "It was uncompromised work, we call this art vital... it was no compromise to any market because we never sold our work, nobody thought of buying it."
The artist described their time together as a period "of incredible freedom and incredible poverty," emphasizing the purity of their artistic vision during those years. However, she was candid about the challenges of their relationship, acknowledging that "Ulay was not an easy human being. He was wonderful, charismatic, interesting, sexy and complicated. Our life was up and down." Following the end of their partnership, Abramović explained that she had to completely start over and redefine her artistic practice to achieve success.
Demonstrating the resilience that has characterized her career, Abramović declared "I never give up" during her remarks at the exhibition opening. The artist, who was honored with the prestigious Praemium Imperiale international arts prize earlier this year, used the occasion to encourage emerging artists not to be "afraid of anything or anybody." Her words reflect the fearless approach that has made her one of the most influential performance artists of her generation.
The exhibition will officially open to the public on Sunday, a date chosen specifically because it marks the shared birthday of both Marina Abramović and Ulay. This meaningful timing adds another layer of significance to the show, which will remain on display until May 2026. During the exhibition's run, some of the duo's most important performances will be recreated and reproduced by young artists, bringing new life to these historically significant works and introducing them to a new generation of art enthusiasts.
