The exhibition "Dressing demons: everyday and formal attire of Hell's inhabitants" explores the vestimentary practices of those who after death were destined for eternal anguish – above all, as a coping strategy, a tool necessary for everyday survival in the nether world space (and in particular, in its most investigated sector; M1, described by Linor Goralik, the author of the exhibition, in her book "Oral folklore of the M1 sector inhabitants").

Linor Goralik is an author, artist, and lecturer in Costume Theory at the Higher school of economics and Moscow school of social and economic sciences. The exhibition features both flamboyant, ostentatiously ornate attire of "demons" – that is, people, who because of their suffering lost their humanity and started tormenting themselves and others (their clothes are made by some of the damned who are tailors in special workshops – like Jewish tailors in concentration camps who made clothes for N
azis and their wives) – and the extremely simple, at times primitive clothes of the damned themselves, that nevertheless possess unique history, connected to the specific role of the body and corporeality in Hell's circumstances, as well as to the specifics of keeping the social, gender, professional and personal identity in the situation like the one where those bound to endless suffering find themselves.

• Actual Hell has no pitchforks, cauldrons and such – there's only endless anguish – a mix of anxiety, boredom, horror, regret, repentance and godforsakenness. In such circumstances some become absolutely indifferent to clothing and go around naked, some wear old rags, or just wrap themselves in a bedsheet, and some, by contrast, take their relationship with modification of appearance to an obsessive level, inventing more and more sophisticated costumes and creating inconceivable rituals connected to appearance;

• In the M1 sector the demons are just "demonified" people – they're people who are driven by dwelling in Hell's timelessness to an extreme state where they torment themselves and those close to them. As such there is no clear delineation between "demons" and "the damned" here, there's only a broad spectrum of human behavior models, and, of course, it reflects on clothing and corporeality;

• Physically, demons do not have any "infernal" features (horns, tails, hooves). But in the process of "demonification" people undergo two distinct physical metamorphoses: their walk acquires a very particular character – they walk with their knees heavily bent and the back arched – and the tips of their ears grow noticeably red. The described feature of the posture significantly influences the design and cut of clothing, and alterations and fitting while a person undergoes demonification become an important topic in and of itself.

• Only the objects that touched the body of the deceased at the moment of death get to Hell. So, not many pieces of fabric and garment accessories are available – but there's plenty of ready-made secondhand clothing, so there's a flourishing practice of exchange, begging, misappropriation and subsequent alterations of clothes.

• The M1 sector features workshops where the damned make clothes for "demons" – like the Jewish tailors made clothes for Nazis during the Holocaust. Since time and labor in Hell are infinite, the work can be immeasurably complex and painstakingly meticulous, and since the damned's boredom and anguish are unbearable, their urge to get to the workshops –despite the inhumane work conditions– can be very strong.