DUMMIES - #01

Mannequins have always been one of the symbols of metaphysical poetics with a name of still uncertain derivation: from the Flemish manneken with the meaning of little man. Suspended in space and time, with human but lifeless features, they exist and do not exist at the same time. New protagonists sometimes deployed as soldiers during an exercise, other times solitary, other times among the people, in the markets, overlooking the shop windows, reflected in the buildings, poised between the real and the dreamlike with a broken soul and the body resting on the ground or elevated from it. Automata created in the image of men, among these they become confused and hidden: they remain motionless and detached but at the same time, observing everything that is in motion, they become witnesses of real life. Made of white oval shapes of plastic or polystyrene, the mannequins manage to convey that melancholy detachment by teaching the living how to avoid emotions so as not to be hurt.