Clément Huylenbroeck of Belgium graduated from the School of Image Arts in 2010 and soon after began the Big Shit project, a collaboration with Pierre Liebaert, documenting highway rest areas. The Big Shit project was presented at the Antwerp FOMU, the Amsterdam’s Brakke Grond, the Nuits Photographiques of Paris and the Arles festival. In 2012, Clément began working on Communal Dream, which we share with you today. Communal Dream is a result of Clément’s sister winning the Miss Soignies Haute-Senne title, exploring the sour vision of beauty pageants.
Communal Dream
The Misses live the affordable dream. With their feverish performances and tartar-free smiles, they can almost grasp it. Facing a crowd of excited eyes, they bend their bodies at the behest of an improvised choreographer. They surrender their hair, their flesh, their nails and their naivety to a cheap champagne soaked audience poorly dressed up in its Sunday best. The attempt is beautiful; in the time of a pale performance inspired by the National Misses parade, they fantasize, imagine themselves the flagship of elegance. It is carried away by this vision that they curve themselves yet a bit more and make pants swell. At the end of the night, the communal dream turns into a heartbreak, a hurtful disenchantment; the bulging eyes turn away, the mouths hereafter drool for another.
To view more of Clément’s work please visit his website.