Visitors to the National Art Museum in Kiev, Ukraine must sign a contract before entering Sleeping Beauty, a new art project by Ukrainian-Canadian artist Taras Polataiko. An oral herpes test is compulsory too; the free breath mints are only optional. Once inside, they will meet one of five young women, lying on a bed waiting for a kiss. And if there is a kiss – and if that sleeping beauty opens her eyes – the two are married on the spot. No exceptions.
It’s a half-playful, half-deadly-sober reflection on choice and consequences. Both women and men are invited to kiss the Sleeping Beauties, but only men can marry them due to Ukraine’s same-sex marriage laws – and marry them, they must. No-one, however, is required to kiss the sleeping beauties. Each visitor has to decide for themselves whether to go through it, and many have simply turned around and left.
