Radical Mannequins

"QUANTUM SHOT" #384
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Their love, revolt and ultimate decay:

Revolt of the Mannequins

You remember "The Machine-Animals of Nantes" article, where we spoke at length about Royal de Luxe theater in Nantes, France. With a gracious permission of Stefan of the "La Révolte des Mannequins" site, we now can glimpse into another production by Royal de Luxe mechanical marionette street theater company.

This production follows "The Sultan's Elephant" and has been shown in Nantes this February to a great acclaim. As always with this company, the sets and mannequins are incredibly detailed and are part of the dynamic story, which takes 10 days to unfold.

The Mannequins are arranged into 13 stages/stories during the days of presentation, among them "The Comic Fire Brigade", "Evil Tale for Other People's Children", "Nightmare of the Puddle", "Grandfather's Birthday", "The Sniper" (see the whole list here)

The latter is a dynamic story, unfolding through various placements of sinister sniper figure and an inspector stalking it:

Next comes the story of finding, cultivating and harvesting these... you know, sweet little bums:

The Homeless Woman (and her means of transportation) -

"Nightmare of the Puddle" - every day a guy grows out of the black goo on the floor:

"The Hunter": The hunter's dog comes with all kinds of handy attachments:

and the hunter's tie speaks for itself:

"The Lovers" is a story of two mannequins who fall in love, while being on display in different stores on the opposite sides of a street. They however, get very close to escaping and joining each other:

Finally, in "Test Positive", the old-and-wise-looking baby is seen crawling back into the mother's womb, all the while getting younger:

(most images credit: Stefan, plus RegarderVoir)

There is also a Flickr pool dedicated to images from this production.

Russia and Ukraine have the Creepiest Mannequins

Only to be expected: whole department stores are often abandoned there, and the mannequins on display are not renewed for many decades. Time and decay then step in, putting the "final touches" on these superb exampes of Communist kitsch:

Babies always fare the worst:

(photos by Varvara Olifirenko)

Another creepy and abused one (found in Zurich, Switzerland):

(image credit: Alessandro Isnotaurelio)

There are "Mannequins Reaching out of Grate" in Prague:

(image credit: Curious Expeditions)

Strange one peeking out of a car:

(image credit: Piotr Hołownia)

Some other wretched (and just plain weird) figures, most from Eastern Europe:
(call it "mad sculpture society" if you like)