Bianco Ordinario

Launched in summer 2021, Hélène Bellenger's Bianco Ordinario draws its inspiration from the marble quarries of Carrara in Italy's Apuan Alps. Long sculpted for exceptionally high-quality white marble prized by artists and designers, the quarries are now overexploited for marble powder—pure calcium carbonate used in toothpaste, makeup, paper, and cleaning agents—linking the site to histories of whitening and, by extension, the whiteness of contemporary Western societies. Bellenger assembles consumer products containing calcium carbonate and prints directly onto the reverse of packaging cartons, reproducing the luxurious imagery of marble statuary on disposable packages alongside landscapes shaped by centuries of extraction. Precious and unique yet ephemeral, these images form a typology of industrial shapes that questions materiality and the consumerist flow. The project was supported by DRAC Paca, the Eurazeo × ENSP Photographer's Grant, and a 2023 CPIF residency.