By Kazi Bushra Orpy

Marina Abramović and Ulay are both visual artists. They met each other in 1975 and they fell deeply in love. Marina and Ulay both had created many art pieces together. About their art pieces, Marina and Ulay had said, “We created our emotional, psychological and frustrated outbursts, all together”. Marina and Ulay had planned to walk from opposite ends of the Great Wall of China and meet in the middle ground where they would then be married. The Chinese government took 5 years to approve their project. They got the approval in 1988, but in those 5 years, many things had changed between them. Marina and Ulay had decided they would do this project for their separation. As they had previously decided, after three months of walking two thousand kilometres in the Great Wall of China, Marina and Ulay got separated from each other. About their separation, Marina said, “It’s very difficult for two artists to work together and two egos to melt in one.”

In 2010, Marina organised a visual art exhibition called “A Moment of Silence”. Marina shared a minute of silence with random visitors face-to-face by sitting on a chair and  her rule was, ‘no touching’. Marina was doing her artwork. Unexpectedly, magic happened.

When Marina’s eyes met those of the next visitor’s, she saw Ulay. Ulayhad come as a visitor without informing her. After 22 years of not seeing Ulay, Marina could not help herself from crying, she broke her own rule of ‘no touching’ and she held Ulay’s hand. They did not talk to one another, their tears showed how much they loved each other, how much they wanted each other and how much they missed each other. After a minute, according to the rule, Ulay left his visitor’s chair from Marina’s artwork. 

After that, no one could tell whether they ever met each other again or not, but that powerful minute explained how strong communication can be, in just one look.