The world premiere of The Feast of Trimalchio, the new series by
AES+F - a luxurious exhibition will include a monumental 9-channel video
installation and a series of large-scale digital ‘paintings’. The Feast of
Trimalchio is an interpretation of the best-preserved part of the witty but
melancholy fiction ‘Satyricon’ by Gaius Petronius Arbiter, the great Roman poet
of Nero’s reign.
This captivating exhibition will envelop visitors in a temporary hotel
paradise, where they can enjoy the excesses of wealth, luxury and gluttony. The
artists have created their beautiful visual feast with the glamour of a
advertising campaign for a luxury brand. The people who inhabit this tropical
and exotic hotel are either ‘masters’ or ‘servants’. The masters might be
university professors, brokers, society beauties or intellectuals. The servants
who work in this vast world are housekeeping staff, waiters, chefs, gardeners,
security guards, masseurs. But their roles become increasingly unclear as the
action unfolds. The unbridled pleasure of this apparent paradise is constantly
threatened by global catastrophes hidden around every corner, casting a dark
shadow.
The Feast of Trimalchio is an interpretation of the
best-preserved part of the witty but melancholy fiction ‘Satyricon’ by Gaius
Petronius Arbiter, the great Roman poet of Nero’s reign.
The 9-channel video work initially debuted in the exhibition Unconditional Love
at the 53rd Venice Biennale. The paintings are exhibited for the first time at
the Garage Center for Contemporary Culture.
AES+F is a collective of four Russian artists, Tatiana Arzamasova, Lev
Evzovich, Evgeny Svyatsky and Vladimir Fridkes, who work with photography,
video, sculpture and mixed media. The group is known for its masterful
manipulation of the fashion and advertising idiom which, when combined with a
deep appreciation of the history of art, produces slick yet complex and
challenging narratives.
AES+F Biographies:
Tatiana Arzamasova
Born in Moscow in 1955. Graduated from the State Architectural Institute in
1978. Lives and works in Moscow. Practised conceptual architecture. Awarded the
Grand-Prix in the OISTT/UNESCO competition ‘Theatre of the Future’.
Participated in conceptual architecture exhibitions in London, Paris and
Venice.
Lev Evzovich Born in Moscow in 1958. Graduated from the
State Architectural Institute in 1982. Lives and works in Moscow. Practised
conceptual architecture. Awarded a prize in the OISTT competition ‘The Touring
Theatre’ in Stockholm. Participated in conceptual architecture exhibitions in
Milan, Frankfurt and Paris. Worked as a designer and director of animated film
and also as designer of the film ‘Sunset’.
Evgeny Svyatsky Born in Moscow in 1957. Graduated from
the Book Design Faculty of the Moscow Printing Institute. Lives and works in
Moscow and New York. Worked as a designer in publishing and advertising.
Participated in international poster competitions and exhibitions of book
illustration, graphic design and posters. Was creative director of a number of
Moscow publishers.
The artists came together as AES in 1987. Photographer Vladimir Fridkes joined
in 1995 and the group became known as AES+F.
Vladimir Fridkes
Born in Moscow in 1956. Lives and works in Moscow. Worked as a fashion
photographer for titles such as Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Elle, Marie Claire,
Cosmopolitan and Sunday Times Style. Participated in the Moscow Photo Biennale
in 1986, 1998 and 2002; in the Fashion and Style in Photography festival in
1997, 1999 and 2001; and in Art Moscow in 2001.
Olga Sviblova Born in Moscow. Curator, art critic,
director and founder of Moscow House of Photography. Gained a PhD from Moscow
State University. Olga Sviblova has curated numerous contemporary art and
photography exhibitions in Russia as well as internationally. Curator of the
Russian Pavilion at both 52nd and 53rd Venice Biennale of Contemporary Art and
was awarded the 1988 Paris Critics Prize at Cannes Film Festival for her
documentary ‘Black Square’.
