Parade

The human body and its representations play a central role in Shahryar Nashat’s sculptures and videos. He questions the very experience of what it means to be a body in an age where technologies are filters that induce fragmentation and distance. Desire, mortality, fragility, and resilience are among his favourite themes. Parade is Nashat’s film interpretation of Adam Linder’s choreography (2014), which itself is a reinterpretation of the famous ballet Parade (1917) written by Jean Cocteau for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, with music by Erik Satie, scenography by Pablo Picasso, and choreography by Leonid Massine. The adaptation is based on a publicity parade of three artists in front of a theatre. In order to survive, the artists must constantly promote themselves. Through framing, editing, and sound, Nashat transforms a dance work into an original and autonomous video.