Norma Jeane's 'Sleeping Beauty Goes Wild' at Galerie de la Friche la Belle de Mai

The anonymous artist Norma Jeane presented the exhibition 'Sleeping Beauty Goes Wild' at Galerie de la Friche la Belle de Mai in Marseille from September 11 to October 24, 2009. Invited by the association Sextant et plus, the show featured six works that challenge dominant production and consumption mechanisms through autonomous processes. In one piece, visitors were invited to sign a contract and spend three minutes alone with new household appliances and tools (sledgehammer, pickaxe, axe), free to act as they wished. The resulting debris of refrigerators, freezers, and washing machines became evidence of collective catharsis. Another work involved a cigarette placed vertically on the floor, burning down as a camera projected its image onto a wall; the ashes were cleaned and a new cigarette lit in a loop, evoking emptiness and radical futility. Other pieces included bags of potatoes left to sprout naturally, a pile of empty water bottles, and the absence of a 500-liter ice cube. The exhibition referenced performances by Marina Abramović (Rhythm 0) and Yoko Ono (Cut Piece), playing on desire, frustration, and acting out. Norma Jeane's works question the authority of productive gesture and the rules of growth and consumer society, offering disembodied propositions that disrupt values. The review was written by Guillaume Mansart.