Charim is pleased to announce the solo exhibition

ULAY

Opening at Charim Galerie, Vienna: 14 October 2025, 6 pm

Curated by Felicitas Thun-Hohenstein and Kurt Kladler
Duration: 15 October - 19 December

Ulay, born Frank Uwe Laysiepen (1943, Solingen, Germany - 2020, Ljubljana, Slovenia) is internationally recognised as a progenitor of performance art in a collaboration with Marina Abramović between 1976-88. Both before and after this collaboration, Ulay produced a significant body of solo work, beginning in the early 1970s with a distinct photo-performance practice and continuing up until his death in 2020, with large-scale photographic experiments and installations. In collaboration with the Ulay Foundation, Charim is happy to be presenting a significant selection of this work along with background material not previously exhibited.

This solo exhibition at Charim coincides with the exhibition “Marina Abramović” at Albertina Modern, Vienna opening 9 October and the major retrospective exhibition “ART VITAL – 12 Years of Ulay / Marina Abramović” at Cukrarna Gallery, Ljubljana opening 30 November.

Image: Ulay, Auto-Portrait, 1970. Polaroid type 108

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Events

Wednesday, 12 November 2025, 6 pm

Book presentation at Charim Galerie

"Ulay / Marina Abramović. LOVE. HATE. FORGIVENESS." (Walther König Verlag, October, 2025)

Ed: Marina Abramović, Ajdin Bašić, Alenka Gregorič, Lena Pislak, Felicitas Thun-Hohenstein.
Text: Marina Abramović, Lena Pislak.

Felicitas Thun-Hohenstein, co-editor of this book and co-curator of the ULAY solo exhibition at Charim, will present this new publication and give a tour of the exhibition with Kurt Kladler, the co-curator of ULAY.

"The body-related actions by Ulay / Abramovic in the 1970s are highlights in the history of performance. The collaboration ended to spectacular effect with the great farewell performance on the Great Wall of China in 1988. "Love. Hate. Forgiveness." is a photobook that offers a rare glimpse into 12 years of Ulay and Marina Abramovic's life together. The book unveils behind-the-scenes moments from performances, travels, and everyday life through more than 200 photographs - some widely recognized, others never before shown to the public. The photobook also includes court documents and concludes with a unique and revealing conversation between Marina Abramovic and Lena Pislak, addressing their shared relationship with Ulay through themes of intimacy, love, conflict, rupture, reconciliation, and remembrance." 
- from the press release

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Friday, 12 December 2025, 6 pm

Film presentation at Charim Galerie
"Project Cancer" (Damjan Kozole, Slovenia, 2013, 91 mins)  

Damjan Kozole, the author and director of the film "Project Cancer" discusses this film and its making at Charim Galerie. The film is currently on view at the gallery for the solo exhibition ULAY. 

In "Project Cancer", the viewer experiences the artist as art object: Already marked by illness, Ulay, the German-born performance, conceptual, body and Polaroid artist, embarks on a farewell journey from Ljubljana to New York, Berlin and Amsterdam in 2011. 

Kozole will also briefly introduce his upcoming film on the life and work of Ulay & Marina Abramović.