‘The Artist is Present’: Performance piece reunites two artists

In 2010, performance artist Marina Abramovic's retrospective exhibit "The Artist is Present" at New York's MoMa spanned over four decades of her prolific career.

She also staged an original work, a solo piece during which she sat in a chair at a table, facing museum visitors in silence.

Essentially, it’s a solo version of 'Nightsea Crossing,'" the New York Times described, comparing the piece with a duo piece she once performed with her fellow artist and one-time lover Ulay, "with Ms. Abramovic sitting silent at a table in the museum’s atrium, facing an empty chair. She’s scheduled to sit there all day, every day, during museum hours, for the run of her show. The museum estimates that, if she can stick to the plan, she will sit for 716 hours and 30 minutes, earning her a record for endurance in the performance art sweepstakes."

As visitors sat in complete silence in the chair opposite her, Abramovic would raise her head and look them in the eye for one minute, bringing some museum-goers to tears.

What Abramovic couldn't not have anticipated was that one of those visitors would be the man she once performed with.

When Ulay showed up, the piece moved the artist to tears — and the room to applause.

"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. In 2010, Marina performed ‘The Artist Is Present,’ a minute of silence with each stranger who sat in front of her. Ulay arrived without her knowing it and this is what happened," commenter HGiskardReventlov wrote on YouTube.

Watch the touching reunion of artists, now going viral, below.

Warning #1: Some nudity for the sake of art. Not safe for all work environments.

Warning #2: You'll probably cry.