sunday sounds.

March 10, 2013 in General

From Zen Garage: “Marina Abramovic and Ulay started an intense love story in the 70s, performing art out of the van they lived in. When they felt the relationship had run its course, they decided to walk the Great Wall of China, each from one end, meeting for one last big hug in the middle and never seeing each other again.At her 2010 MoMa retrospective Marina performed ‘The Artist Is Present’ as part of the show, where she shared a minute of silence with each stranger who sat in front of her. Ulay arrived without her knowing and this is what happened.”

I shared this on Facebook yesterday, so moved by the ways in which this demonstrates how we all break open. What a powerful thing to feel our chest open at the sight of another human being, in instantaneous awareness of all the complexity that this proximity brings back to us. They parted long ago on the Great Wall of China, Ulay having impregnated his 25-year-old translator. And now something like a wind, of shock and of recognition, erases that sand structure that separated them. As Gary Grant commented on my post of this on Facebook, “I see two children. Two beautiful fools. ‘See each other again’ … just a story. ‘Never see each other again’ … a story as well.”

Who would make your heart catch in this way?

About Patti Digh

Patti Digh is an author, speaker, and educator who builds learning communities and gets to the heart of difficult topics. Her work over the last three decades has focused on diversity, inclusion, social justice, and living and working mindfully. She has developed diversity strategies and educational programming for major nonprofit and corporate organizations and has been a featured speaker at many national and international conferences.

9 comments to " sunday sounds. "


Maureen E Doallas

March 10, 2013 AT 1:27PM

That moved me to tears.

Jennifer

March 10, 2013 AT 3:52PM

You have exposed me to more things through your Sunday Sounds that have exposed more emotion in me than I even knew I had. This was – literally – breathtaking. Thank you.

mj

March 10, 2013 AT 7:52PM

I want to know what makes your heart catch this way, Patti. Maybe this is how we enter heaven.

Beth Cooper-Zobott

March 11, 2013 AT 10:10AM

At 1:59, Marina begins to weep, and Ulay looks down and away. That seemed to sum up everything that had gone before….and then when she reached out her hands, and he took them, that seemed to point to how things might go in the future. What a powerful 3 minutes of silence.

Marion Williams-Bennett

March 11, 2013 AT 2:48PM

Everything happens in this three minutes – Love, passion, forgiveness, hope, connection, remembrance – while others look on. Then, he walks away and she finds herself and starts over. It’s life in three minutes. Thank you so much for bring this to us!

OceanPrincess

March 11, 2013 AT 5:55PM

Moved to my very core.

Laurie

March 13, 2013 AT 7:07PM

I fell in love with another woman right out of college. We both labeled our love as “wrong” because that was what we had been taught, even though we were both happier than we’d ever dreamt of being. We broke up, moved to different states. I got married to a man, thinking that was the “right thing to do”. But I always thought of her. If I had run into her in the grocery store, I’m sure I would have fainted from joy. Years later, after we had both independently came out as lesbians and embraced the health of being who we are, we reconnected, and are friends to this day. I learned that she had visited family many times in the city that I was living in, not knowing that I lived there. So the grocery store meeting could have actually taken place! The love between us is still there, in a different form, but as strong as ever, and I’m grateful to have her back in my life for good.

Kimmie Vogt

March 13, 2013 AT 10:30PM

I watched this documentary and was struck by this artist. Her work is breathe taking at moments, scary at others, and extreme. That relationship that they have is really something.

Pearl Pirie

March 28, 2013 AT 2:21PM

the context you gave makes the video make more sense.