EXHIBITED PICTURES AT THE BROKEN MUSES EXHIBITION AT THE ROYAL ARTS AND HISTORY MUSEUM IN BRUSSELS
(DURING COCIR GALA DINNER ON JUNE 17, 2009 CELEBATING THEIR 50th ANNIVERSARY)

NY MELANCHOLIC MUSE
Margit Brandl - New York 2008

I found this mannequin in a white wig when I was walking through New York with my father in spring 2008.
I thought she was very aesthetic but also melancholic.

HOLE IN HEAD I
Margit Brandl - Paris 2008

If you pay attention, while walking the streets, you will find out that there are many more (interesting) female mannequins than male ones. This one I found in the north of Paris on a bright sunshine September day. He has clearly suffered as he demonstrates to the world the hole in his head. Some may argue that he looks jealous as well.

HOLE IN HEAD II
Margit Brandl - Paris 2008

The owner of my favourite photo shop said “well, it’s the first time I saw you’re taking pictures of male mannequins” He was right. He also said ”I have to confess, they frighten me”.

MERMAID
Margit Brandl – Canada 2008

This wonderful hat of sea shells let me dream about a mermaid enjoying a nap in the sun.

BROKEN NOSE
Margit Brandl -Oostende/Belgium 2006

A day on the Belgian coast was about to end when I discovered this mannequin in a quite unspectacular shop selling clothes for elderly women. It was a windy summer day, the sun was about to disappear and this broken muse was looking at me with her adorable broken nose.

BROKEN MUSE
Margit Brandl - Mauritius 2007

After seven years of taking pictures of broken muses, I discovered this mannequin on a trip to Mauritius. She reminded me a lot of the original broken muses picture that I took in Philadelphia. Smashed and stuck together with a piece of tape she is still looking into a bright future…

WEDDING DRESS
Margit Brandl – Paris 2002

This picture is haunting me since I took it back in 2002 in Paris. It is a bride whose dreams are shattered. To me it is the Dorian Gray of brides. The mannequin ages and so does her dress. I recently saw her again and from what I could tell she has gone through more trouble.

NEW YORK TRINITY
Margit Brandl - New York 2005

A well known shop for an even more well known designer brand in the middle of SOHO in New York always catches my attention when I happen to walk by. Those mannequins show perfection, don’t they, and at the same time how boring perfection can be.

ISTANBUL TRINITY
Margit Brandl - Istanbul 2007

Istanbul has a wholesale quarter for mannequins – a paradise for me. I found those three muses in one of the stores there and thought to myself whether that doesn’t give a new and different perspective on Turkey. You probably ask yourself why I consider them part of the broken muses series. Well, after all they are bold and bald!

SHUT UP
Margit Brandl - Brussels 2006

Shut up is a picture that I took during the winter sales in early 2006 in an expensive Brussels city center boutique. The shopkeeper decided to display the mannequins naked, disassembled, just placed on and inside empty boxes that were sealed with this “shut-up” tape. The shop closed sown soon after the sales.

ORANGE TRINITY
Margit Brandl - Mauritius 2007

Mauritius is advertised as paradise. Mark Twain even said that “Mauritius was made first and then heaven was copied from it”. Well, that could probably also be said for my personal broken muses heaven; I found many of them in Mauritius.

BROKEN MUSES
Margit Brandl - Philadelphia 2000

This is the original “broken muses” picure, the one that gave the name to the series that I have been building up since its name. I took it in Little Italy in Philadelphia in the US. The mannequins were draped outside of a shop selling scarfs, caps and bonnets.

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