In 2015, he sued Abramović, claiming she had violated a contract about their shared work. Belgrade-born Abramović and Ulay, real name Frank Uwe Laysiepen, were lovers and co-creators for more than a decade before their separation in 1988, during which time they devised a series of works exploring their partnership. While the Belgrade-born artist hasn’t commented on the outcome of the lawsuit yet, the German performer described it all as ”unpleasant and distressful”, saying that in his opinion, the verdict was fair and just. “We became good friends again.” Last November, on his 76th birthday, he opened a Foundation and Project Space in Ljubljana. A lawsuit has been launched against the world’s best-known performance artist, which claims she is in violation of a contract over their joint works. She was ordered to pay more than €250,000 ($279,000) in royalties, in addition to legal costs. Abramović's former partner Ulay joins her during her performance at her career retrospective. Photo by Matthias Nareyek/Getty Images. All profits were to be divided as follows: 50% to the gallery, 30% to Abramović and 20% to Ulay. It seemed that Abramović was completely smitten and unaware of his plan to appear in the performance. Image via art21.org The reenactment of Imponderabilia at The Artist is Present, 2010. Brooklyn, New York, United States of America. In his case, Ulay argued that he sold his physical archive to her as well, when she agreed to maintain it and supervise the production of saleable materials from it, in the forms of videos, photographs and performances. But she has deliberately misinterpreted things, or left my name out.”, But Abramovic’s lawyer said the artist “totally disagrees” with her former partner’s allegations. In 1988, the great relationship between Marina Abramovic and Ulay ended with perhaps their greatest artwork. The two reconciled in the following years, according to The Story of Marina Abramović and Ulay, a 2017 documentary about the couple’s life and work. Interacting with each other, they also created works which involved the audience, and quite directly too, testing their own endurance and focus. Last modified on Wed 29 Nov 2017 07.38 GMT. The beating heart of Walk Through Walls is an operatic love story—a twelve-year collaboration with fellow performance artist Ulay, much of which was spent penniless in a van traveling across Europe—a relationship that began to unravel and came to a dramatic end atop the Great Wall of China. When the couple separated in 1988, they decided to mark the end of their relationship with a piece called The Lovers, in which they each walked 2,500km from either end of the Great Wall of China, before embracing and parting for the last time. The memory of that tender moment has now been banished, however, after Ulay launched a lawsuit, to be heard in Amsterdam later this month, in which he claims Abramović has violated a contract they signed in 1999 covering works they had created together. We aim at providing better value for money than most. Ulay in November 2018. Now, it's certain all the affection is gone, as Marina Abramovic and Ulay are settling the rights over joint artworks in court. In addition, Ulay alleges that Abramović prevented him from including images of their joint works in his 2014 book, Whispers: Ulay on Ulay – resulting in multiple redactions that were replaced in its pages with pale pink squares – and objected to the establishment of the Ulay Foundation, an organisation intended to manage his posthumous estate. Marina Abramović, the world’s best-known performance artist, is being sued by her former collaborator and romantic partner, the German artist known as Ulay… Available for everyone, funded by readers. Abramović responded to Ulay’s death in an Instagram post: After their split, Ulay returned to photography. She will defend her rights and reputation by all legal means.”. All rights reserved. “We became good friends again.” Last November, on his 76th birthday, he opened a Foundation and Project Space in Ljubljana. The walk was originally meant to happen in 1980, but the Chinese government did not grant them permission to perform the work for eight years, and by that time, the relationship between the two had completely dissolved. Marina Abramović, the world’s best-known performance artist, is being sued by her former collaborator and romantic partner, the German artist known as Ulay, in a dispute over works they created jointly. Marina Abramović, The Artist Is Present (2010), Museum of Modern Art, New York. Abramović vehemently denies the claim, Wed 11 Nov 2015 18.21 GMT But his lawsuit claims that she has interpreted the contract to give him a much smaller share of royalties. Up until that point, she would only stare at whoever is sitting across the table from her, without any kind of interaction or movement; but when her former lover appeared before her, she had a deeply emotional reaction, as she suddenly began to cry reaching out to him. Ulay, the performance artist best known for his provocative “relation works” with his then-partner Marina Abramović, died in Ljubljana, Slovenia on Monday morning from complications caused by his battle with lymphatic cancer. Talking about their work, Abramović often said that it was all about finding out ”how to put down my ego” and stated that her partner had to do the same, as they were very like-minded. Their final work together, The Lovers (1988), doubled as a commemoration for the end of their relationship. “She is not just a former business partner,” he told the Guardian. However, it would appear that “the grandmother of performance art” didn’t manage to hold her end of the bargain, furthermore preventing him to include images of their joint works in his 2014 book Whispers: Ulay on Ulay. Since their break-up, Abramović has become famous … His series Berlin Afterimages (1994–95) focused on the realities of life in the German city after the collapse of the Soviet Union.