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M+, Hong Kong, © Courtesy of the Marina Abramović Archives / BILD-KUNST, Bonn - SACK, Seoul, 2022
Marina Abramović 瑪麗娜．阿布拉莫維奇
The Lovers 情人
1988/1996
This photograph and sketch are part of a series documenting The Lovers: Great Wall Walk, a physical and spiritual trek undertaken from opposite ends of China’s Great Wall by Serbian artist Marina Abramović and her then collaborator, the German-born, Amsterdam-based artist Ulay.
Conceived in 1983 and realised in 1988, the performance lasted three months. Abramović walked two thousand kilometres westward from Shanhaiguan, the wall’s easternmost point, in Qinhuangdao, known colloquially as the ‘dragon’s head’. Ulay walked the same distance eastward from the ‘dragon’s tail’ at Jiayuguan, the wall’s westernmost point, in Gansu Province. Upon meeting near Erlang Shan temple in Shenmu, Shaanxi Province, the couple embraced—a signal that they would not marry, but end their twelve-year professional and personal partnership instead. The photograph provides an aerial view of Abramović wearing red, a colour that signifies healing in her practice. A corresponding sketch of a serpent’s tongue mimics the wall’s dragon-like curves through the surrounding mountainous landscape, extending the animal motifs in Abramović’s other works.
Conceived in 1983 and realised in 1988, the performance lasted three months. Abramović walked two thousand kilometres westward from Shanhaiguan, the wall’s easternmost point, in Qinhuangdao, known colloquially as the ‘dragon’s head’. Ulay walked the same distance eastward from the ‘dragon’s tail’ at Jiayuguan, the wall’s westernmost point, in Gansu Province. Upon meeting near Erlang Shan temple in Shenmu, Shaanxi Province, the couple embraced—a signal that they would not marry, but end their twelve-year professional and personal partnership instead. The photograph provides an aerial view of Abramović wearing red, a colour that signifies healing in her practice. A corresponding sketch of a serpent’s tongue mimics the wall’s dragon-like curves through the surrounding mountainous landscape, extending the animal motifs in Abramović’s other works.
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