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Male visitors may kiss Sleeping Beauty .... but they will also have to marry her Photograph: National Art Museum of Ukraine

Once upon a time, in the beautiful and politically volatile eastern European nation of Ukraine, five young women took turns lying on a bed in the National Art Museum, waiting for a true love's kiss. Their potential princes, after having presented their passports to the security guards (a Ukrainian's marital status is always reflected on his or her passport) and undergone a test for oral herpes, were allowed to kiss whichever young woman was on duty. Should she open her eyes during the kiss, they would be married instantly. Both the visitors to the museum and the sleeping beauties on display had previously signed a contract agreeing to the quickie marriage.

This all sounds extremely weird, of course, but Ukrainian-Canadian artist Taras Polataiko, the author of the Sleeping Beauty project on display this month in Kiev, may have just hit on a theme that perfectly describes both marriage as an institution and, perhaps less obviously, the state of Ukrainian society today.

"The idea behind the project is patience," Polataiko has told Gazeta Po-Ukraiinski. "Our people can be patient for a long time. While Beauty is sleeping, the entire kingdom is also sleeping. If the kingdom is to be woken, the Beauty must be woken."

Following the failure of the Orange Revolution in 2005, when life in Ukraine could have changed for the better but didn't (I fully ascribe this failure to political infighting), a new wave of anger has been brewing in the country. But there has yet to be a catalyst for real change. In that sense, Ukrainian society is like the Sleeping Beauty: waiting for the kiss that may wake her or, if you will, for the leader she will finally be glad to follow. It's all terribly essentialist, and yet very much applicable to the political climate of today.

Yet unlike the traditional Sleeping Beauty, who is in a kind of coma, Polataiko's project presupposes self-awareness and ultimately, choice. His Sleeping Beauty doesn't have to wake for just anyone. The decision to open her eyes is hers alone.

The visitors (both women and men can kiss the Sleeping Beauties, but only men would be able to marry them in Ukraine, as the country does not allow same-sex marriage) who enter the room are not required to kiss her. On the spot, they must decide whether or not they will go through with the act. Some turn around and leave.

To kiss or not to kiss, to wake up or not wake up: such decisions are a matter of personal responsibility. If you get past the politics of the project, it becomes obvious that Polataiko is having a lot of fun with the entire notion of marriage and commitment. The artist has boiled the story of true love to its essentials – arguing, ultimately, that love is always a gamble. We feel an initial connection to another human being, and act on it. And then we must deal with the consequences of that act.

There is an of element risk in every relationship, whether we like to admit it or not. Having observed the pageantry of traditional Ukrainian weddings (or most weddings in general, my own included; lest you think I somehow see myself as above the silliness of it all, I wore blue suede boots, butterfly sleeves and had my hair styled as if we were suddenly back in the 1940s, for God's sake), I believe that Polataiko has taken this ceremony to its logical conclusion. Two legal adults stand in the spotlight and make a commitment to one another. Both are under pressure to perform certain roles. The man must be brave. The woman beautiful. How will both fare in the magical land of the ever after? Well, if divorce statistics are any indication, it's almost as if the majority of people out there end up marrying a stranger after all.

Maybe love really is as foolish as Polataiko has made it out to be. Maybe there is nothing wrong with foolishness either. A lot of how-we-met stories are pretty random, and the initial spark of attraction works in inexplicable ways.

When you think about it, telling your kid that, "Mummy was pretending to be asleep in the National Art Museum and I woke her up with a kiss" isn't that strange after all.

• This article was amended on 28 August 2012. It originallay stated that only men could kiss the women posing as Sleeping Beauties. In fact, both women and men are allowed to – but if kissed by a woman, their option for marriage would be in another country that allows same-sex unions

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