Later that year, he stole Carl Spitzweg's 1839 painting The Poor Poet from Berlin's Neue National Galerie. He installed the painting in the home of a poor Turkish family in Berlin, and was later arrested and punished.
The photographic documentation of the caper was captured by none other than his new girlfriend－it was the first collaboration between the two, and became one of Ulay's most famous works: Irritation－There is a Criminal Touch to Art (1976). It is significant because it cleverly touches on many aspects of society including art, education, history, responsibility, and turbulent social situations.
In fact, as early as December 1975, Ulay used a full-page advertisement in the German art magazine Art Forum to announce how he would steal a painting from the national gallery, and elaborated on it in 14 steps through his performance art.
Love helped the two perform together and resulted in a career peak for both artist. With disheveled long hair, his tragic early life exuded a loneliness and melancholy that deeply attracted Abramovic. They loved each other and performed together.
Again, in 1976, their piece Relation in Space was a hit－literally so, in the case of the artists. The couple, naked, would start trotting toward each other from a distance of 20 meters, rubbing briefly, and returning to the same place again and again. Each return produced a more intense collision that resulted in Abramovic being knocked down half an hour later. They used their bodies to express the ups and downs of emotions between men and women and their gender differences. In order to produce better results, during the performance, the sound of a physical collision was transmitted through a speaker.
Soon, Abramovic returned to Belgrade to divorce her husband, and began a life of "cooperation" with Uray.
Their inherently restless hearts made them tired of performing in the city's art gallery. The two decided to move out of their apartment, buy a convertible, and start a life as nomadic, wandering artists. Abramovic and Ulay created a manifesto for their performance art in that convertible: there is no fixed place to live; always on the run; direct connection; local relations; self-selection; exceeding limits; challenging risks.
In the following 12 years, until 1988, they created a series of famous works under the theme of "Art Vital," the physical embodiment of that manifesto.
These two free spirits drove a Citroen caravan back and forth across the Netherlands, Germany and Italy. They lived an ascetic life in the caravan, where their perennial residence was a 1.5 meter mattress. They helped farmers graze their animals at 5 am in exchange for the necessary food, and Abramovic knitted sweaters for herself and Ulay during the journey. In 1980, inspired by nature, the two simply sold their vehicle and went to Australia to explore life with indigenous tribes and seek more inspiration.
