Bibbidi Boo...
Performance combined with video works, including the work of Louis Hothothot

In the XV and XVI centuries in Europe, to perform as fragile is to show sophistication. It was how a woman should behave in order to show she’s part of a higher class. During colonization, white women are considered untouchable while black women are eroticized and animalized. Furthermore the way ‘feminine nature’ is defined, invalidates women to do what men could do such as sport, work, .... The different waves of feminisms have been trying to break with those images. Nowadays, new images of femininity have risen. It is visible with some pop stars and influencers showing pride over their sexuality, doing intense physical training, or celebrating the power of the butt after the rise of twerk in music videos in the 2000s. But those body types, such as Kim and Kylie Kardashians have now become pretty images and a way to impose new beauty standards and go in pair with wealth.

‘Bibbidi Boo...’ is a solo work that looks at deconstructing the archetype of the princess in order to reflect on the disciplining of the female body and the predominance of a Western and capitalist aesthetic: a constant tension between innocence and sexuality. It wonders what it is to perform in a feminine way. It draws a parallel between princesses portrayed in fairy tales (ballet, literature, Disney animations, films) and female influencers (members of the Kardashians’ family, Ariana Grande, ...) on social media. What if one day, Sleeping beauty, a character embodying a certain perfection of femininity, would wake up in our contemporary society and discover its current beauty norms?


This project received the support of the Gerbrandy Cultuur Fond, SPAM! Rete per le Arte contemporanee, and Les Moulins de Paillard.