Join us for a continuous screening over three days, December 1-3, of videos produced for Visual AIDS Day With(Out) Art. The hour-long, looped program will be available in the KAM Education Center on the lower level of the museum, with seating available for individuals and small groups up to 15 people.
Visual AIDS announces Being & Belonging, a program of seven short videos highlighting under-told stories of HIV and AIDS from the perspective of artists living with HIV across the world. Being & Belonging will premiere at over 100 museums and arts organizations on December 1, 2022 for Day With(out) Art / World AIDS Day.
Being & Belonging will feature newly commissioned work by:
Camila Arce (Argentina)
Davina “Dee” Conner and Karin Hayes (USA)
Jaewon Kim (South Korea)
Clifford Prince King (USA)
Santiago Lemus and Camilo Acosta Huntertexas (Colombia)
Mikiki (Canada)
Jhoel Zempoalteca and La Jerry (México)
From navigating sex and intimacy to confronting stigma and isolation, Being & Belonging centers the emotional realities of living with HIV today. How does living with HIV shift the ways that a person experiences, asks for, or provides love, support, and belonging? The seven videos are a call for belonging from those that have been stigmatized within their communities or left out of mainstream HIV/AIDS narratives.
The artists in this year’s program were selected through an open call process juried by curator and writer Nico Wheadon, filmmaker Jorge Bordello, artist and curator Ezra Benus, and cultural consultant and health activist Lauraberth Lima.
The hour-long video program will premiere on December 1, 2022, World AIDS Day/Day With(out) Art. Visual AIDS partners with museums, galleries, universities, and organizations around the world to present over one hundred free screenings on/around December 1. If you are interested in screening this year’s Day With(out) Art video program, please visit this page for more information.
Video Synopses
Camila Arce, Vertical Memory Archive
Camila Arce presents a poem about the experience of being born with HIV and growing up as part of the first generation with access to antiretroviral medication in South America.
Davina “Dee” Conner and Karin Hayes, We Are Here: Voices of Black Women Who Live with HIV
Davina “Dee” Conner was diagnosed with HIV in 1997. For 17 years she knew no one else who lived with HIV. As she emerged from isolation and internalized stigma, Davina sought to understand the journeys of other Black women living with HIV. Here they are. Listen to their voices.
Jaewon Kim, Nuance (working title)
Nuance (working title) depicts a relationship between someone who is living with HIV and their HIV negative partner. Through their entangled yet sometimes isolated lives, the video offers a critical reflection of the issues surrounding HIV/AIDS in South Korea today.
Clifford Prince King, Kiss of Life
In Kiss of Life, three Black people living with HIV describe their dating experiences. Raw conversations surrounding disclosure, rejection and self love are expressed through visual poetry and dreamscapes.
Santiago Lemus and Camilo Acosta Huntertexas, Los Amarillos
In Colombia, many people living with HIV experience jaundice–the yellowing of the eyes and skin–as a side effect of the low cost antiretroviral drugs supplied by the government. Los Amarillos is an experimental video addressing the alienation and hypervisibility that the artists have faced as a result of this side effect.
Mikiki, Red Flag
Through a cacophony of limbs, members, and sounds drawn from the party and play scene, Mikiki interrogates their own substance use and asks how we can return pleasure and trust to conversations about drug use.
Jhoel Zempoalteca and La Jerry, Lxs dxs bichudas
Lxs dxs bichudas offers a poetic dance dialogue in Zapotec and Spanish that explores the ways in which race, gender, and geography shapes the lives and bodies of people living with HIV in Mexico, a country marked by the ideological project of mestizaje.
