NONO

NONO is a compilation of overlapping cigarette ads from the 50s until the 90s found around the world. A cacophony linked to a visual confusion produces a layered narrative thus blending representations of the ideals of beauty, holidays, the link between the human-animal and the notion of nature... all these stereo/types forged during the glory years of capitalism that represent the foundations of liberal consumption’s canons.

It is important when advertising this type of product to look away from the fact that its consumption can be lethal. On the other hand, smoking bans are certainly a health-promoting manoeuvre, but they have also produced a total shift in the imaginary associated with the act of smoking. The film NONO is at the centre of the moral controversy between different types of freedom (to smoke or, on the contrary, not to breathe other people's smoke). Since the 2000s, the ideological switch linked to the action of smoking, which, however not uniformly global, occurred in less than 10 years. It suggested a drastic transformative capacity at the structural level of society. Which other ideological switch could we imagine today?

The propaganda film NONO a counter-blast to tobacco was realised for the project Microdistro during the 2019 BIG Biennale in Geneva. The work was sold as an edition for 5 CHF a pack in a cigarette vending machine. Each pack contained a USB key embedded in insulation wood, with 5 seeds of ancient tobacco from a variety producing giant scented leaves with a medium nicotine content. A folded A4 sheet containing indications of tobacco planting was also provided.