Love, Hate, Forgiveness

The photobook Love. Hate. Forgiveness. presents exceptionally rare and previously unpublished photographs from the twelve-year period of shared life and artistic collaboration between Ulay and Marina Abramović.

The body-oriented actions created by Ulay and Marina Abramović in the 1970s are considered key points in the development of performance art. Their intense twelve-year collaboration reached its symbolic conclusion in 1988 on the Great Wall of China, where they transformed their separation into a ceremonial meeting.

The photobook Love. Hate. Forgiveness. brings together more than three hundred photographs from their personal archives, revealing the behind-the-scenes processes of their work: from rehearsals and travels to everyday moments that shaped their shared life and artistic practice. Some scenes are already part of art history, while others offer insight into materials that have never before been made public.

The photobook also includes selected legal documents that show how intimate relationships intertwine with institutional and legal processes — and how these influence the shaping or the end of a relationship. The publication is complemented by a conversation between Marina Abramović and Lena Pislak, in which they revisit life with Ulay: from love and creative alliance to conflict, separation, reconciliation, and renewed reflection on their shared past. It stands as a rare, candid testimony about two icons of performance art and about how art and life often follow the same line. As such, the photobook acts as a valuable historical document while simultaneously offering an independent, firsthand insight into the dynamics of one of the most influential artistic duos of the 20th century.

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