iNeue NationalgalerieTiergarten
Ulay, Ulay & Abramović
Ulay's early photography, S'he and FOTOTOT, and his 1976 theft of Spitzweg's The Poor Poet from this museum, plus his 1976–88 collaboration with Marina Abramović.
More in Berlin
Preview: written before the show opened
On 12 December 1976, Ulay took Carl Spitzweg's The Poor Poet from this museum and drove it to the home of a Turkish guest worker family in Kreuzberg. His film of that action, Irritation, There is a Criminal Touch to Art, is the centre of this show, paired with another version of The Poor Poet lent by the Grohmann Museum in Milwaukee.
Around it are Ulay's early photographs: the S'he self-portraits, and FOTOTOT, prints left unfixed so they fade in the light. Then come his twelve years with Marina Abramović in videos, photographs, drawings and letters, from Relation in Space (1976) to The Lovers in 1988. For that one they walked from opposite ends of the Great Wall to say goodbye, which puts ending things by text in perspective.
Daily from 3pm to 4:30pm, Imponderabilia is performed live: two naked performers face each other in a narrow doorway, and you are invited to pass between them. Thursdays the museum stays open until 20:00; it is closed Mondays.
Editor's pick
In 1976 Ulay lifted Spitzweg's The Poor Poet from this museum and took it to a guest-worker family's Kreuzberg home; the film of it anchors the show. Imponderabilia is restaged daily by two naked performers in a doorway.
Look for
Irritation, There is a Criminal Touch to Art (1976)
The film of Ulay taking Spitzweg's The Poor Poet out of this museum and driving it to a guest worker family's home in Kreuzberg.
The Poor Poet, the Milwaukee version
Another version of Spitzweg's 1839 painting, lent by the Grohmann Museum, shown alongside the film of the 1976 theft.
FOTOTOT (1976)
Look for photographs Ulay left unfixed, so the images slowly disappear as light falls on them.
S'he (1973-74)
Ulay's Polaroid self-portraits, one showing him in make-up with a fox fur over his shoulder, labelled "DEZEMBER '73".
Imponderabilia, live
Daily from 3pm to 4:30pm, two naked performers stand facing each other in a narrow entrance, and visitors are invited to pass between them.
Good for
- Evening Visits
- Nerding Out
- Out-Of-Town Guests
With kids
Imponderabilia, performed live daily from 3pm to 4:30pm, has two naked performers in a doorway that visitors pass between. Outside those hours the show is films, photographs, drawings and letters.
Also at Neue Nationalgalerie
On now nearby
Nearby
Image credits
8
- Ulay, Ulay & Abramović© Ulay. Courtesy ULAY Foundation, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2026
- Rubens, Jordaens, van Dyck. Flemish Master DrawingsPhoto: Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett / Jörg P. Anders
- Time Travel in the Old Tiergarten District© Bildarchiv Foto Marburg
- Daniel Chodowiecki, 1726–1801. Images of the Enlightenment in BerlinCourtesy of Gemäldegalerie
- Neue NationalgalerieEvgenii Salganik / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- GemäldegalerieOursana / Wikimedia Commons, CC0
- KunstgewerbemuseumMarsupium / Wikimedia Commons, CC0
- Gropius BauManfred Brückels / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0