Day With(out) Art 2022

Presented in partnership with Visual AIDS, Being & Belonging highlights stories of people living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) from the perspectives of artists who are themselves living with HIV/AIDS. First organized by Visual AIDS in 1989, Day With(out) Art invites arts and cultural organizations to acknowledge the global impact of the AIDS crisis each year on December 1.

This program features newly commissioned works 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), and Jhoel Zempoalteca and La Jerry (México).

From navigating intimacy and sex to confronting stigma and isolation, Being & Belonging articulates the emotional realities of people living with HIV today. How does HIV shift the ways that one experiences, asks for, or provides love and support? The videos are a call for belonging from those who have been stigmatized within their communities or left out of the mainstream HIV/AIDS narratives. The videos in the program address the contemporary realities of HIV/AIDS through a range of global perspectives, exploring access to medication; the complexities of race, class, and gender; and the politics of recreational drug use in sexual contexts.

Special thanks to T. Reckling.

About Visual AIDS

Visual AIDS is a New York-based non-profit that utilizes art to fight AIDS by provoking dialogue, supporting HIV+ artists, and preserving a legacy, because AIDS is not over.

Video Synopses

Memoria Vertical, 2022, by Camila Arce

Camila Arce presents a poem about the experience of being born with HIV and growing up as part of the first generation in South America with access to antiretroviral medication, which prevents the virus from replicating in the body.

Here We Are: Voices of Black Women Who Live with HIV, 2022, by Davina “Dee” Conner and Karin Hayes

Davina “Dee” Conner was diagnosed with HIV in 1997. For eighteen 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.

Nuance, 2022, by Jaewon Kim

Through an unfolding collection of images, Nuance reflects the thoughts and feelings exchanged between the artist, who is living with HIV, and his HIV-negative partner.

Kiss of Life, 2022, by Clifford Prince King

In Kiss of Life, several Black people describe their experiences living with HIV. Raw conversations surrounding disclosure, rejection, and self-love are expressed through visual poetry and dreamscapes.

Los Amarillos, 2022, by Santiago Lemus and Camilo Acosta Huntertexas

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 addresses the alienation and hypervisibility faced as a result of this side effect.

Red Flags, a love letter, 2022, by Mikiki

Through a jumble of body parts and sounds drawn from the party and play scene, Mikiki speaks with other drug users about the possibilities of representing the pleasure of substance use beyond the framework of harm.

Lxs dxs bichudas, 2022, by Jhoel Zempoalteca and La Jerry

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 politics of mestizaje—a concept of interracial and transcultural identity that has shaped Latin American nationalisms.