December 1 is World AIDS Day. For the fourth consecutive year, the Frye Art Museum is proudly partnering with Visual AIDS for the thirty-first annual Day With(out) Art by presenting TRANSMISSIONS, a program of six newly commissioned videos responding to the ongoing HIV/AIDS epidemic beyond the United States with works by Jorge Bordello (Mexico), Gevi Dimitrakopoulou (Greece), Las Indetectables (Chile), Lucía Egaña Rojas (Chile/Spain), Charan Singh (India/UK), and George Stanley Nsamba (Uganda).
The program does not intend to give a comprehensive account of the global AIDS epidemic, but provides a platform for a diversity of voices from beyond the United States, offering insight into the divergent and overlapping experiences of people living with HIV around the world today. The six commissioned videos cover a broad range of subjects, such as the erasure of women living with HIV in South America, ineffective Western public health campaigns in India, and the realities of stigma and disclosure for young people in Uganda.
As the world continues to adapt to living with a new virus, COVID-19, these videos offer an opportunity to reflect on the resonances and differences between the two public health crises and their uneven distribution across geography, race, and gender.
The Frye’s ongoing partnership with Visual AIDS magnifies the Museum's commitment to art education and builds on its established tradition of bringing a broad range of contemporary art and related discourses to our audiences. This year's program is particularly salient in light of the global nature of both HIV/AIDS epidemic and the COVID-19 pandemic. The Museum remains in steadfast support of artists and in solidarity with arts organizations who center art as an educational tool that can lead to informed action about the most important topics of our time.
Starting today, TRANSMISSIONS is available to view online for free. Watch the full video program at visualaids.org/transmissions.
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Visual AIDS is a New York-based non-profit that uses art to fight AIDS by provoking dialogue, supporting HIV+ artists, and preserving a legacy, because AIDS is not over. In 1989, Visual AIDS organized the first Day With(out) Art, a call to the art world for mourning and action in response to the AIDS crisis. For Day With(out) Art’s thirty-first year, institutions worldwide will screen TRANSMISSIONS, recognizing the important and necessary work of artists, activists, and cultural workers who have responded to AIDS while emphasizing the persistent presence of the epidemic.
Negarra Kudumu
Manager of Public Programs