Ukrainian artist, Taras Polataiko has recreated a classic fairytale in the hopes to witness the birth of love. The Sleeping Beauty exhibition was held at the National Art Museum of Ukraine earlier this month.
Five volunteer Sleeping Beauties, each selected for their looks as well as their intelligence, slept for two hour shifts each day, on beds of white satin, waiting for their prince to come and wake them from their slumber with a kiss.
But the exhibition took an unexpected turn when the only Sleeping Beauty to wake during the artistic experiment found that her prince was actually a princess. Because the Ukraine does not allow homosexual marriage, (and the contracts are not legally binding) the two will not wed but do hope to further some sort of creative or professional relationship.
Besides Polataiko’s hopes to witness love, the exhibition also contained political undertones, symbolising the patience of the Ukrainian people trapped by what he calls the oppressive government of President Viktor Yanukovych. The artist hopes that the nation will one day awaken to true freedom.
Anyone who was over 18, single and without mouth herpes was entitled to try their luck at waking the fairytale princess, as long as they signed a waiver promising that if Sleeping Beauty wakes, they would wed. Other visitors were invited just to look.
The beauties were instructed only to open their eyes if she intuitively felt that her prince had come. Once the Sleeping Beauty woke up, her stint at the exhibition was over, and Polataiko would instead project the image of her sleeping in her place.
Polataiko carefully monitored the exhibition, blogging about, photographing and filming each visitor, catching all the expected, and unexpected, moments. And there were some unexpected moments, including an American man leaving one of the beauties a brand new iPad, his email address and $400 to buy a ticket to visit him in Amsterdam. Or the heartbreaking scene of a man from a provincial Ukrainian town, who knelt before one Sleeping Beauty and wept because she did not wake from his kiss.
