An archaeology of the imagination / a new aesthetic of ruin (a sophisticated artist's edition in a box, inspired by the over-exploitation of Carrara marble quarries).
Launched in the summer of 2021, Hélène Bellenger's Bianco Ordinario project draws its inspiration from the marble quarries of Carrara, nestled in the heart of the Apuan Alps in Italy. Carved for centuries for the exceptional quality of their white marble—highly prized by artists and designers—these quarries are now overexploited for the extraction of marble powder, pure calcium carbonate. This powder, used in the production of toothpaste, makeup, paper, and cleaning products, is now part of a broader history of whitening and, by extension, of whiteness in contemporary Western societies.
Hélène Bellenger has assembled a collection of consumer products containing calcium carbonate, which she uses to print directly on the inside of their cardboard packaging. The luxurious and imperial imagery of marble statuary is thus reproduced on small containers, placed alongside a selection of landscapes shaped over centuries by the intensive exploitation of Carrara marble. Precious and unique, yet ephemeral and disposable, these images—whose forms vary depending on the products—compose a typology of industrial shapes, questioning their materiality and their place within the flow of consumerism.
The editorial project accompanying Bianco Ordinario reflects this distinctive materiality. A cardboard box, screen-printed flat with a photograph by the artist, holds the book and a booklet. Once unfolded, the box can be displayed on a wall as an artwork in its own right. The book itself presents about a hundred images in a clean and direct layout, accompanied by a critical text and a fold-out leaflet with three essays that explore the project's social, environmental, and aesthetic dimensions. Printed on white paper with a white screen-printed cover, the publication becomes an object in its own right: a white block, formally embodying the artist's inquiry into the visual culture of whiteness and its contemporary symbolism.
"Bianco Ordinario resembles an archaeology of the imagination, where our representation of marble and the famed Carrara quarries—exploited for over 2,000 years—shifts away from cultural mythologies to open onto a critical poetics of the Anthropocene. Here, photography confronts its own physical limits, just as the industrial extraction of marble powder, now depleting the site, calls for a transformation in our idealized vision of marble. This interplay between the materiality of images and the degradation of a resource gestures toward a new aesthetic of ruin."
—Michel Poivert
Hélène Bellenger (born 1989) is a French contemporary artist whose work critically explores the politics of visual culture through photography, installation, performance, and experimental print. With a background in art history and cinema, her practice deconstructs Western image-making by reclaiming and recontextualizing visual materials. Exhibited widely across Europe and recognized with numerous awards and residencies, Bellenger's work invites reflection on identity, perception, and the power structures embedded in contemporary imagery.
