please forgive me, I can no longer live with my nerves
Sorry I didn’t get that, intervention in Maurizio Cattelan’s Not Afraid of Love
Monnaie de Paris, Paris
2017
The performance, titled Please Forgive Me, I Can No Longer Live with My Nerves, takes its name from the suicide note of actress Jean Seberg, who was subjected to harassment by the CIA due to her political activities. Seberg was well-known for her roles in films directed by Jean-Luc Godard, notably her portrayal of Patricia Franchini in the 1960 film À bout de souffle.
In the film, Seberg, playing the character Patricia, can be seen walking up and down the Avenue Champs D’Elysee, distributing American newspapers.
During the intervention at the Monnaie de Paris, a young woman resembling Seberg, dressed as Patricia Franchini, wandered around the museum, distributing pieces of toilet paper printed with images from an Israeli newspaper.
This intervention aimed to highlight the absurdity and malevolence of the media, which ultimately contributed to Seberg’s demise. The decision to print the images on toilet paper was a nod to Catelan’s Toiletpaper magazine.
The intervention took place at the Monnaie de Paris as part of their open education program for the Maurizio Cattelan exhibition, Not Afraid of Love.
