You may have seen this; I had not until someone on my Facebook feed sent it this morning. Three years ago, the artist Marina Abramović did a performance art piece at MOMA in NYC in which strangers would present themselves to her by sitting in a chair across a table. The artist would open her eyes and stare silently at them, holding their gaze for sixty seconds. At one point, a performance artist called Ulay who had been her lover and collaborator from 1976 to 1989, sat down across from Abramović, who had no idea he was coming. You see that moment recorded above. It’s strangely moving. Imagine the control you would have to maintain for that minute, staring at a person you had once loved with all your heart, but had not seen for over two decades. The emotions that pass between these two, in silence, say more than words can.

The back story here is that in 1988, the two decided that their relationship had reached its end, and marked that by walking separated across the Great Wall Of China. Ulay started at its western end, Abramović in the east; they met in the middle, and said goodbye. And now, 23 years later, they meet again, at opposite ends of a table in New York City.

Incidentally, here is a clip of a 1978 performance art piece starring these two. It’s an example of why I’m not generally a fan of performance art; still, it’s nice to see what they once looked like, in the flower of their youth.