The formless image: reflections on the otherness of faceless bodies

Abstract The aim of this essay is to raise questions about the possibilities of alterity of the faceless bodies, taking as central concern the question: how much can we decompose the human figure so that it remains human? Starting from a set of images that bring the disfigure as a central pictorial element, the text discusses the possibilities of construction and access to the other in the image. We take as conceptual and methodological anchoring the thought of Georges Bataille, notably the concept of formless, which suggests us to think of otherness from a transgressive similarity, based on the difference and the decomposition of forms. The text seeks to investigate what alterity is possible before faceless bodies, and how this reverberates in the propositions of contemporary visual culture.