It wasn‘t exactly Prince Charming but one of Ukraine’s “Sleeping Beauties” finally got a kiss on the lips as she dozed on a dais filmed by cameras -- though unlike the fairy tale she never woke up.

“I‘m not sure I would marry precisely this girl, I just was curious whether she would open her eyes,” said the young woman who dared the embrace while male visitors shied away.

The venue was Ukraine’s National Art Museum and the stakes were -- marriage.

Visitors at a wacky performance called “Sleeping Beauty” were allowed to kiss a series of volunteer Sleeping Beauties -- but only if they signed an undertaking to marry the woman if she “wakes up”.

Those reluctant to commit to a perfect stranger were allowed to look at the “princess” slumbering in a white dress in the dimly lit room, but not lock lips.

“I‘m not ready to kiss a woman on the first date, and it’s definitely the first time I‘ve ever seen her,” said Oleksandr Dankov, 43, after choosing not to steal a smooch.

But “perhaps I’ll come again,” he told AFP.

Yana Krasnokutska, 23, was more daring.

“It‘s a fairy tale, so I was just curious to try it,” she told AFP, smiling after kissing the “Beauty” lightly on the lips.

The performance was created by Ukrainian-Canadian artist Taras Polataiko, who said he had been working on this project for the last two years.

He was inspired by the well-loved fairytale in which a young princess is put under a curse and sleeps for hundreds of years along with her kingdom. She is finally awoken by a kiss from a prince who loves her.

The women in Kiev slept in public for two hour-long shifts each day, with a half-hour break between.

“The idea behind the project is patience,” Polataiko told AFP.

“Our people can be patient for a long time. While Beauty is sleeping, the entire kingdom is also sleeping. If the kingdom is to be woken, the Beauty must be woken.”

Polataiko said that he chose as his Sleeping Beauties attractive women who were also looking for a steady partner.

“All the five girls I’ve chosen are gorgeous, smart and waiting for a true love,” he said, adding that he initially planned having only one Sleeping Beauty but ended giving the others a chance too.

“We have three or four visitors every day willing to awake the Sleeping Beauty, both men and women,” he told AFP.

“This isn‘t a marriage agency. It’s magic, it‘s a fairy tale. No one knows how it will end,” said Polataiko.

Natalya Bakovskaya, 27, was the first sleeping beauty to do a three-day stint waiting for her prince after her sisters told her about the casting call on television.

“When it started, I got really involved in it and felt as if I was in a fairy tale,” she told AFP.

“I could hardly sleep with all the cameras and visitors on the first day, but afterwards I enjoyed the two hours of the rest in the middle of the day and even felt a kind of drowsiness,” Bakovskaya said.

She said she did not open her eyes and so never did find her prince, although one of the kisses she received was “especially memorable”.

Later she tried watching a video of her kisses to identify the young man who kissed her on the first day, but did not succeed.

Finally the fairy tale ended with a non-traditional twist as the fourth Sleeping Beauty opened her eyes after a kiss, to find not a prince, but a princess.

“I was astonished when I opened my eyes and saw a girl,” translator Yana Gurzhiy, 24, told AFP after she decided to open her eyes when she was kissed on the forehead.

Ukraine does not allow gay marriage, making it impossible for Gurzhiy to tie the knot with her pursuer, but she said she had felt a connection with the woman who kissed her, whom she named only as Katya.

“I believe it is not a coincidence we had to meet this way. She’s a very interesting person, so I hope we‘ll have some kind of professional and creative partnership.”

A fifth Sleeping Beauty was set to take her place in the performance, which was to end September 9. (AFP)



<관련 한글 기사>

잠자는 미녀에게 키스, 눈뜨면 결혼!


동화 ‘잠자는 숲속의 공주’를 완벽하게 재현한 퍼포먼스가 열려 화제가 되고 있다.

우크라이나 국립 미술관에서 열린 “잠자는 숲속의 공주(Sleeping Beauty)” 퍼포먼스에서는 공주 역할을 맡은 여성들이 연단에 누워 자는 동안 방문객들이 찾아와 그녀들에게 키스를 할 수 있다.

단, 여기에는 조건이 하나 있는데, 퍼포먼스에 참가하는 방문객들은 ‘공주’가 키스로 인해 눈을 뜨면 그녀와 결혼하겠다는 동의서에 서명을 해야한다.

‘왕자’ 역할에 도전하는 사람들은 남녀 통틀어 하루에 3~4명 정도이다.

이번 퍼포먼스를 기획한 것은 우크라이나 출신 캐나다 예술가 타라스 폴라카이코이다. 그는 지난 2년간 이 프로젝트를 준비했다고 하면서, 마법에 걸려 수백년간 잠을 자던 공주가 왕자의 키스에 의해 눈을 뜨는 이 동화에 깊은 영감을 받았다고 밝혔다.

“이 프로젝트 이면에 있는 발상은 인내심입니다. 공주가 잠을 자는 동안에 그녀의 왕국 역시 자고 있죠. 왕국을 깨우기 위해서는 공주를 깨워야 합니다”라고 폴라카이코는 말했다.

공주 역할을 맡은 여성들은 하루에 총 두 시간씩 연단에 누워 잠을 자게 된다.

그는 이번 프로젝트에서 진지한 교제를 하고자 하는 매력적인 여성들을 골라 공주 역할을 맡겼다고 말했다.

“이건 결혼 중개업이 아니라 동화입니다. 아무도 결말이 어떻게 날 줄 모르죠”라고 폴라카이코는 강조했다.

한편 잠자는 공주 중 한 명이었던 야나 구르지 (24)는 얼마 전 이 ‘동화 퍼포먼스’에서 예상못한 결말을 맞아야 했다. 키스를 받고 눈을 뜬 그녀의 앞에 서있었던 건 남성이 아니라 카트야란 이름의 여성이었던 것.

그러나 우크라이나에서는 동성결혼이 허용되지 않기 때문에 카트야와 구르지가 맺어지는 것은 불가능하다. 하지만 구르지는 “매우 놀랐다”라고 하면서도 카트야란 이름의 이 여성과 ‘연결된’ 것을 느꼈다며 앞으로 “전문적이고 창의적인 관계”를 맺어가겠다고 밝혔다.