GAYLETTER

AIDS, it’s a real bitch. Yet because there’s drugs and vital care available to anyone (in NYC at least) infected with the virus, most people go on to live long and productive lives (albeit with many random health issues other people their age don’t have to deal with.) The advent of these life saving interventions has created a perception that the crisis was averted, which in turn has lead to the almost total lack of urgency in both the art world, and the media, to talk about and cover what is still a big issue. People continue to get infected — we need to keep talking about it — we need to keep making art about it. The struggle was, and still is, real. We can do better than sanctified nostalgia.

Visual Aids and The Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies are teaming up to provide the public with an open forum to address questions regarding the representation of HIV/AIDS in the public sphere titled: (re)Presenting AIDS: Culture and Accountability. The forum will include a diverse range of speakers; artists, critics, administrators in HIV/AIDS related exhibits and curators.

This forum is in conceptual affiliation with the current exhibition at New York’s Historical Society — AIDS in New York: The First Five Years, — in particular the recent NY Times article  How to Whitewash a Plague, which you can read here. 

“What responsibility do institutions with little to no relationship with those most impacted by HIV/AIDS have when mounting an exhibition related to the ongoing epidemic?”

The discussion will be streamed live here for those of you who are unable to attend.

Free, 6:00PM, Skylight Room (9100), 365 Fifth Ave. NY, NY.