The camera follows Ulay, a conceptual artist from Amsterdam, for a whole year. Ulay was one of pioneers of body art, performance art and polaroid art; he was a transvestite, a half man - half woman, a social activist..., but he is most famous for his long year collaboration with Marina Abramović and their performances that have achieved iconic status. In 2009, Ulay moved to live in Ljubljana (Slovenia). When talks and plans on the film were already under way, Ulay was diagnosed with cancer, and all plans for the film were changed. The first scenes were shot in November 2011 at the Ljubljana Institute of Oncology, where Ulay was undergoing chemotherapy treatment. When his health slightly improved, he decided to visit his friends around the world and the camera followed him on this so-called farewell journey: to Berlin for the premiere of Marina's film, then to New York and finally to »his« Amsterdam. Ulay treated his illness as the biggest and most important project of his life, hence the title of the film "Project Cancer". |
