 Nov 30 2025 - Apr 1 2026

 Ljubljana

Ljubljana's Cukrarna Gallery is mounting an extensive multi-layered show on the shared lives and creativity of Ulay and Marina Abramović, two pivotal performance artists.

The exhibition Art Vital will cover 12 years of the artist couple's work and life between 1976 and 1988. It will open on 30 November 2025 to coincide with their shared birthday.

The event is being organised in cooperation with the Ulay Foundation and its director Lena Pislak, and the Marina Abramović and Sydney Fishman archives. It is curated by Alenka Gregorič and professor Felicitas Thun-Hohenstein of the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts.

German artist Ulay was married to Pislak and spent the final 12 years of his life in the Slovenian capital before his death in 2020. He held a major exhibition at the City Gallery in 2017.

Gregorič, who co-curated the 2017 show, described the upcoming exhibition as a wast endeavour, promising to provide in-depth insight and a comprehensive presentation of the life and work of both artists.

Alongside cult events documented in video, photo series, and memorabilia, the exhibition will feature ephemera and archival materials like photographs, footage, playlists, books, letters, and personal notes never before shown publicly.

Also on display will be the iconic Citroen van that Abramović and Ulay lived in from 1975 to 1979.

The show will be accompanied by a reprint of Relation Work and Detour, the seminal catalogue published by the two artists in 1980, as well as an extensive catalogue of the exhibition.

Marina Abramović visited Cukrarna in person in late October 2024 to help conceptualize the layout.

After Ljubljana, the exhibition is expected to visit other galleries in Europe.