When Vandalism Became Performance Art
'ME TOO' written across a scandalous masterpiece
Image: Wikimedia Commons (public domain)
- Repair Cost
- Undisclosed
- Curator's Blood Pressure
- 89%
- Embarrassment Level
- 6/10
- Recovered?
- Restored
- Selfie Involved?
- No
During a Jacques Lacan exhibition, artist Deborah De Robertis and collaborators wrote 'ME TOO' in red marker across Courbet's 'The Origin of the World' and targeted works by Louise Bourgeois and others.
In May 2024 visitors to the Centre Pompidou-Metz expected a show devoted to Lacan. Instead they witnessed one of the most unusual protest performances in recent museum history: while accomplices distracted security, two women inscribed the feminist slogan across Courbet's notorious painting.
The action, later revealed as an organised performance by De Robertis, criticised misogyny and abuse within the art world and blurred the boundaries between protest, vandalism, activism and contemporary performance — leaving conservators, and critics, to argue over which it truly was.