Circa 1528: The Marquis de Fonda of the Republic of Genoa, attempts to overthrow the aristocratic government in order to enable ordinary citizens to elect the doge and the senate, he failed, he was branded a traitor and fled Italy. Eventually the Fonda’s settled in New York.

In 1957, at 19, Jane Fonda moved to Paris to become a painter, inspired by the dream of the radical avant-garde. She met Roger Vadim and Brigitte Bardot (then married) as she commenced a relationship with the culture and politics of the left bank. She left Paris 3 months later, following a minor scandal after posing nude for a photographer.

Jane Fonda then followed her father into Hollywood, a studio contract and the gender degradation of the star system. For my fist movie, Jack Warner wanted to dye my hair, put me in a corset, add falsies, break and reset my jaw so it would have a softer line, and I don’t know what else. Every studio wanted its own version of Marilyn Monroe.

Fonda regularly returned to Europe, by 1965 she was engaged to Vadim and in ’68 she was radicalised during the Paris events of 1968. She bank-rolled the Black Panthers and worked with the Viet Cong to encourage mutiny amongst American servicemen in Vietnam. My only regret is I did not fuck Che Guvera

2018 will mark the 50th anniversary since the events of 1968.
2028 will be the 500th anniversary since the events of 1528.

This work is structured around the American actress Jane Fonda. Fonda’s character and emblematic life story is used as a vehicle for introducing a series of themes related to current politics, drawing a close parallel between events in 1968 in Europe and those taking place across the continent today – from the rise of populism to the ongoing debate over security in western society.