Philippe Parreno Wallpaper Marilyn, 2018

Wallpaper Marilyn was conceived by Philippe Parreno on the occasion of his first major solo exhibition in Germany, at the Gropius Bau in Berlin. The wallpaper depicts irises, printed with phosphorescent pigment on paper.

The pattern is a subtle reference to Marilyn, the artist’s 2012 film, which conjures up the presence of Marilyn Monroe in the set of a suite at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York, where the actress lived in the 1950s. Although not directly visible on the set, the wallpaper is described by the voice-over impersonating the voice of Marilyn Monroe.

In the film, three apparatuses invoke the presence of the dead actress in that work: the camera becomes her eyes, a computer reconstructs the rhythm, stress, and intonation of her voice and a robot recreates her handwriting. Parreno has noted that he initially conceived of the project when he saw Marilyn Monroe’s handwriting in a book containing fragments of the actress’s notebooks.