Défilé by AES+F Group: The Macabre Intersection of Fashion and Death

In the contemporary art landscape, few pieces strike a chord as unsettling and thought-provoking as Défilé by the renowned Russian art collective, AES+F. Composed of seven digital collages displayed in lightboxes, Défilé immerses viewers in a darkly evocative “fashion show” of haute couture and mortality. Each image juxtaposes luxurious garments—white silk gowns, leopard-print coats, tailored tuxedos, and delicately draped red evening dresses—over lifeless, anonymous cadavers acquired from a local morgue. Details typically omitted from fashion imagery are laid bare: EKG sensors linger on exposed chests, blood-streaked bandages cling to elbows, and open mouths hint at the silent, final breaths of their bearers. In this piece, AES+F dismantles the conventions of fashion advertising, unmasking the often-overlooked links between beauty, decay, and the inevitability of death.

The Conceptual Roots: A Dialogue Between Fashion and Death

The origins of Défilé trace back to Giacomo Leopardi’s 1824 philosophical work, Dialogue between Fashion and Death. In this text, Leopardi personifies Fashion and Death as “sisters” bound by their mutual focus on the ephemerality and sufferings of the human condition. Fashion, for Leopardi, serves as a transient facade that masks deeper truths, while Death is the inevitable end that strips away such artifice. AES+F’s Défilé brings this dialogue to life with uncompromising literalism, presenting death not through metaphor but through stark, unembellished reality.

In fashion and media, death is often romanticised—represented through vampires, ghosts, or the macabre allure of zombies. Yet, AES+F bypasses this symbolic distance, creating a visceral reality where human mortality is draped in the trappings of luxury. By using actual deceased bodies rather than stylised representations, the artists force a reckoning with our culture’s fascination with beauty, often without regard to the decay that lies beneath.

Memento Mori and the Surrealistic Undertones

Défilé operates as a surrealistic danse macabre, evoking the medieval allegory that underscores the inevitability of death. Surrealist strategies are embedded in the visual interplay between sumptuous fabrics and decaying flesh, crafting a juxtaposition that shocks and mesmerises. The influence of the Surrealist movement, particularly the works of Georges Bataille and his theories on the abject and “base materialism,” is palpable. Bataille’s writings on the abject focus on elements of human experience that society typically deems disgusting or taboo. In Défilé, the morbid presentation of human remains clad in luxurious attire serves as a stark memento mori, confronting viewers with the fragility of life and the inevitability of death.

The abject transgressions of Défilé are essential to its surrealism. By refusing to romanticise death or treat it as an abstract concept, AES+F confronts viewers with their discomfort, drawing them into the paradoxical beauty and horror of human finitude. These images serve as a reminder that luxury and decay, seemingly incompatible, coalesce when we view mortality through the prism of consumer culture.

A Tender Gesture Amid the Grotesque

While the initial impact of Défilé is one of shock, a subtle tenderness also permeates the work. Dressing these unclaimed cadavers in luxurious garments is an act of respect, perhaps even reverence, toward lives now unremembered. No family or friend would have dressed these individuals post-mortem; they are forsaken, left unclaimed in the morgue. AES+F, in adorning them with fashion’s highest symbols, grants them an unexpected dignity, highlighting a latent compassion often absent from critiques of the fashion industry.

AES+F’s approach illuminates the contradictions at the heart of fashion itself: an industry fixated on beauty, reinvention, and surface-level allure, yet grounded in the fleeting nature of human existence. By using actual human remains rather than models or metaphors, the artists transcend typical criticisms of fashion’s superficiality, exposing a deeper, existential vulnerability.

Exhibiting Défilé: From Houston to Kochi

Since its debut, Défilé has travelled widely, appearing in exhibitions worldwide. It first premiered in 2007 at the Station Museum of Contemporary Art in Houston, Texas, introducing American audiences to its unsettling vision. In 2008, it was featured in Russian Dreams… at the Bass Museum of Art in Miami, followed by the Third Moscow Biennial at Moscow’s Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, cementing its reputation within Russia’s art circles. Nearly a decade later, Défilé reached further international audiences, appearing at the Kochi-Muziris Biennale in India and L’Arte Differente: Mocak al MAXXI in Rome’s MAXXI Museum in 2016.

Each exhibition has reframed Défilé within a unique cultural context, with audiences across the globe interpreting the piece through their own lenses of mortality, beauty, and consumerism. Its consistent impact speaks to the universal nature of its themes: the transient allure of luxury, the universal dread of death, and the artifice that binds them together.

Défilé as a Cultural Mirror

Défilé by AES+F remains a powerful critique of the fashion industry and its paradoxical relationship with mortality. By merging high fashion with the raw reality of death, the piece shatters the comfortable illusion of beauty, pushing viewers to confront what lies beneath. The work’s profound resonance with audiences lies in its ability to transcend cultural and temporal boundaries, offering a compelling exploration of beauty, death, and the fashion industry’s strange role as an arbiter of both.

As Défilé continues to exhibit internationally, it challenges us to question our own relationship with fashion and mortality. Are we merely consumers of beauty, or does our attraction to it hint at something deeper—a need to grapple with the inevitable decay that awaits us all?

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