Posts on Luv 'til it Hurts

A blade of grass (instead of a video)

Thu, 31 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

[*In Some remarks before I make the video, I say I’ll make a video for the launch of E&H Lab’s CHAOS project. Instead I decided to reconsider some ‘grant language’ from the recent Luv ’til it Hurts process. – xo Todd]

Perhaps this piece should be termed ‘denouement to funders’ or ‘divorce in funder-land’, but these thoughts were gathered originally for a short ‘video letter’ to the CHAOS project (Paris) on mental health … which I never made. What eventually brought these two themes of ‘funding’ and ‘mental health’ together was a question on a grant application for the LUV project in which I was asked if I’m ‘handicapped’ and if I’m ’neurodivergent’. I reluctantly checked one or both in that instance, but didn’t get the money. This is beside the point. I deeply considered whether having HIV rendered me handicap, whether being manic-depressive rendered me neurodivergent, and whether HIV cross-pollinated to compound neurodivergence.

Bienal Party

Thu, 31 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

As is stated prominently, LUV is an HIV ‘scrapbook of sorts’ and as such influenced by my stream of consciousness, as well as that of other key participants. Basically anything that happened within the past three years is fair game to consider HIV against.

Back during Cidade Queer we worked on HIV issues, trans issues and issues that cut across both. One might ask if HIV is a trans issue, and I would argue that it is…and that public health systems must urgently advance in ways to address this overlap. However, explaining that connection is not what this article is about. Recently I was thinking how important and fun the 2016 ATAQUE ball was to co-organize and how impressive the ballroom community is in São Paulo. There are many things I’m excited to do after COVID lifts, and one of them is to produce another party, festa or ball. In fact, I have a nascent concept in mind (codeword ‘Bienal Party’).

BLACK [strength]

Thu, 31 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

“Initiated by Lanchonete.org and ArtsEverywhere/Musagetes, the Cidade Queer program was a broad collective inquiry into how can we understand the contemporary city through a queer, intersectional, non-normative lens. The program included a series of encounters, dinners, residencies, and performances, and “Cidade Queer, uma Leitora” reconfigures these moments into a new form, extending the inquiry trans-nationally.”

***

On the same color wheel as WHITE and RED, BLACK symbolizes strength.

The above-language is precursor to an essay on the ArtsEverywhere website, entitled Can a mestizo asshole speak? loaned by Jota Mombaça (as well as others) during Cidade Queer, an episode of Lanchonete.org.

Can a mestizo asshole speak?

Thu, 31 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

A collection of essays, artistic contributions, and two inserted zines, “Cidade Queer, uma Leitora” was developed as part of an 18-month inquiry in São Paulo. Initiated by Lanchonete.org and ArtsEverywhere/Musagetes, the Cidade Queer program was a broad collective inquiry into how can we understand the contemporary city through a queer, intersectional, non-normative lens. The program included a series of encounters, dinners, residencies, and performances, and “Cidade Queer, uma Leitora” reconfigures these moments into a new form, extending the inquiry trans-nationally. The Reader was edited by Júlia Ayerbe and designed by Laura Daviña of Edições Aurora/Publication Studio São Paulo. Order a copy in Portuguese or English online. The following essay is a complementary, web-only contribution by one of the authors in the Reader.

Cruising Quito: Notes on Grindr, Queer Codes, and Post-AIDS

Thu, 31 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Cruising Quito was a project that I developed in the framework of Cidade Queer Quito, from June 28 to July 8, 2017.

The project included a residency at No Lugar, along with an experiential research and reflection on the different spaces and technologies of gay cruising in the city of Quito, following the distinction that I have proposed between analog cruising and digital cruising, that is, between the cruising modalities that go from places like parks, public baths, or video venues, to computer technologies such as the Grindr or Hornet applications.

Looking for Lesbians

Thu, 31 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

A collection of essays, artistic contributions, and two inserted zines, “Cidade Queer, uma Leitora” was developed as part of an 18-month inquiry in São Paulo. Initiated by Lanchonete.org and ArtsEverywhere/Musagetes, the Cidade Queer program was a broad collective inquiry into how can we understand the contemporary city through a queer, intersectional, non-normative lens. The program included a series of encounters, dinners, residencies, and performances, and “Cidade Queer, uma Leitora” reconfigures these moments into a new form, extending the inquiry trans-nationally. The Reader was edited by Júlia Ayerbe and designed by Laura Daviña of Edições Aurora/Publication Studio São Paulo. Order a copy in Portuguese or English online. The following graphic work is a complementary, web-only contribution by one of the authors in the Reader.

RED [luv]

Thu, 31 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

In WHITE I exclaimed how nice it was nice to put the final touches on the LUV archive in December only 6 months after the ‘official’ closing in July 2020, but three months have now passed and this one particular RED piece resists being finished … perhaps because it’s the only outstanding element on the entire RED site [**a new LUV site was erected on World AIDS Day, December 1 2020. During the 2010 ResArtis general assembly at Tokyo Wonder Site the Singaporean director Ong Keng Sen said something to the effect that ‘artists are concerned with starting things, and their closure is not something the artist must always consider’. In the context of his speech, this notion made perfect sense to me. Perhaps because I was looking for additional justification for moving on from a ten-year pursuit providing safety measures for artists-in-distress to a five-year site-specific endeavor in São Paulo called Lanchonete.org. I don’t make works that a collector can purchase, so the idea of finishing a work isn’t so much about its monetization for me. I suspect however that this ‘knowing when it’s finished’ is common across artistic mediums regardless of their commodity.

SOY PAISAJE (I AM LANDSCAPE)

Thu, 31 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

A map of the world that does not include Utopia is not even worth glancing at.
– Oscar Wilde[1]

Words by Horacio N. Roque Ramírez (1969-2015); presented as part of Cidade Queer and the Deviant Quito Graphics Lab, Edições Aurora, 2017.

Since 2013, artists and activists have been invited to participate in an arts showcase as part of the cultural activities during the LGBTIQ+ Pride month in Quito, Ecuador. Last year, the show was entitled SOY PAISAJE and took place at Quito’s Center for Contemporary Art in July 2017. With this exhibition we sought to structure and represent the local, regional, or national memories and histories of the LGBTIQ+ community. This exhibition was a part of the Cidade Queer gathering, where artists, activists, and curators explore the relationship between queer, cuyr, kuir, and life in the contemporary city. Cidade Queer started as an organizing project in São Paulo, Brazil, (2015, 2016) and moved to the city of Quito for its second edition.

WHITE [hope]

Thu, 31 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The first thing I want to say is ’thank you’ to all the people–artists, non-artists, poz and negative folks–who took part in Luv ’til it Hurts for the past two-plus-years. While I’m still putting final touches on both RED & BLACK, I would like the last words on the site (and perhaps the first to be read) to be these: THANK YOU !!!

A simple color wheel confirms that WHITE is a symbol of ‘hope.’ Given 2020 and COVID-19, hope is in high demand. Sometimes white does not offer hard borders, and that is one way of imagining hope … just knowing that something hard to reach is also impossible to touch may neutralize a certain strain of fear.

A NEW BOOK OF BEAUTY, INTIMACY, LOSS, AND RENEWAL: ERIC RHEIN: LIFELINES

Tue, 20 Oct 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Institute 193, the innovative gallery and publisher, has announced the publication of Eric Rhein: Lifelines

This is the first book from artist Eric Rhein: a unique monograph-memoir spanning three decades of his life and artwork. It features intimate photographs taken between 1989 and 2012—including self-portraits and images of friends and lovers from the period between Rhein’s HIV diagnosis, his near death, and the returning vitality that new medications would afford him. As a personal response to the AIDS crisis, these compelling portraits highlight tenderness and care as life-saving forces.

Homage to a working group

Fri, 09 Oct 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Luv ’til it Hurts was at first a two-year project, and is now something much more. I admit that I don’t want to limit its future potential by saying what it is/isn’t or what it’s become. However, there are three ways to clearly ‘see it’. In a recent grant application, I described our group of three coordinators (Brad Walrond, Paula Nishijima & myself) as a ‘working group’. Brad suggested ‘The Work Group’ instead, and the name seems to have stuck. A traveling group show called EXQUISITE CORPSE has been conceived by The Work Group. And, I continue to develop the LUV Fund, an apparatus to deliver faster resources to HIV-related cultural activism, as well as to acknowledge the role of the artist in public health & social movements pertaining to HIV/AIDS. With such a lofty title as The Work Group, it is incumbent on us to say what we do. Our new website is forthcoming, and that explains us rather well. In the meantime, I’ve taken ‘a stab’ at explaining who we are and what we do:

LUV Fund$

Fri, 09 Oct 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Image: PogoLand

As early as the 1st ‘About’ page: A discussion to be accountable to, the creation of a ‘philanthropic device’ was mentioned, and again in an interview with the Think Twice Collective. Most often over the course of LUV’s first two years, this idea of raising funds for artists and activists working on HIV related stigmas referred to an idea that (after its R&D phase) could be offered to the Elton John AIDS Foundation. And, while this is still the case (or can be), LUV has also been star-fucking around with a couple other artists who have do-good organizations in which a prefab philanthropic device might be nestled. Either way, the apparatus I speak of is conceived for ‘give away’. Recently I’ve begun referring to this ‘philanthropic device’ as the LUV Fund in order to differentiate it from other LUV byproducts, such as the LUV Game and/or EXQUISITE CORPSE, a traveling group show. These items, can of course, work in tandem. There’s a Work Group (composed of Brad Walrond, Paula Nishijima & Todd Lanier Lester) that meets weekly to plan future LUV work, and on several occasions I’ve explained that while energy was given early on to exhibiting the works of artists working on HIV (e.g. Luv Till It Hurts by Kairon Liu), I did not anticipate a traveling group show as what would come next. I luv it, but I didn’t see it coming! And, as for the ‘philanthropic device’, whatever LUV does, it has to do that too!!

If I had a bit more time...

Mon, 28 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Image by Todd Lanier Lester

In Why Make an ‘Open Work’? I begin to discuss DURATION, and why a project like LUV would have an initial, formal (albeit arbitrary) two-year timeframe.

Lately, I’ve been sifting through scraps of paper, contacts and ideas for articles. Luv ’til it Hurts is in the process of transforming itself into a new (and perhaps more concrete) form that will be fully explained by its forthcoming new site. Before I tie a bow on the ‘red’ (or archive) site, I wanted to reference a few of the ideas and contacts that come to mind as I look back on the past two years concentrated on HIV & stigma. For example, I remembered two pieces by Gian Spina, On Pedagogical Turns and the Use of Time (with Nikos Doulas) and Waiting for the After-Effects of Documenta 14 in Athens (with Jota Mombaça) I wanted to include. Some others are:

LUV, a timeline

Mon, 28 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Image by Sebastien Sanz de Santamaria

In January 2018 and speaking on freeDimensional, I was invited to give a co-keynote address on day two of the 10th Anniversary Celebration of the Centre for Applied Human Rights @ York University [see download]. And while I now realize the ‘second day’ programme (of thinkers from the art camp vs. the human rights camp) is not included in the ‘one day’ online history of this two-day event, this was the first time I mentioned being HIV+ from any type of stage, podium, pulpit, soapbox and/or dais. This is indeed where I first met Professor Maggie O’Neill.

On Pedagogical Turns and the Use of Time

Wed, 23 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

[*In 2017 whilst participating in Capacete’s mobile school project on the occasion of Documenta 14 ‘Learning from Athens’, Gian Spina edited a series of articles Documenta in Athens, and co-authored a couple of them. And, I got the chance to work with a friend (in a publishing capacity) on the series. I took particular interest in the two he co-authored, On Pedagogical Turns and the Use of Time (with Nikos Doulas) and Waiting for the After-Effects of Documenta 14 in Athens (with Jota Mombaça), which offer institutional critique for the ‘art school’ and ‘art event’ respectively. While these articles predate Luv ’til it Hurts, the project was already in my mind when working with Gian, and with this project I attempt to both make an HIV & stigma-themed work–that evokes themes and issues within ‘art curating’ and ‘art philanthropy’–and offers criticism on the conditions of production encountered along its two-year course. Thanks Gian for the inspiration!!! xo Todd]

Paula Nishijima on LUV (red site)

Wed, 23 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

[*In the process of making Luv ’til it Hurts (starting with a two-year staged impersonation by its alter-ego, Luv Hurts), I began working with fellow artists, Paula Nishijima and Brad Walrond. Paula reviewed my organization of ideas & content from its 2018-20 archive (a.k.a. the red site) using her ‘swarm’ methodology to understand patterns, and ultimately to propose the project’s next online iteration.]

Waiting for the After-Effects of Documenta 14 in Athens

Wed, 23 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Every Where Alien's POETICS + PANDEMICS

Fri, 18 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Pictured: Brad Walrond and Alberto Pereira Jr.

poetics & pandemics is conceived as a Quarterly virtual publishing & performance platform that takes seriously the role of word, voice, ideas, and semiotics in framing how pandemics like HIV & Covid-19 root themselves in cultural landscapes. We will curate a quarterly open mic that features the written and performance work of artists, poets, critical thinkers. Open mic will be a mix of performance and interview as we engage contributors work and ideas in context to the current and historical events delimited by a focus on our anticipated changing theme.

Larry Kramer, Playwright and Outspoken AIDS Activist, Dies at 84

Fri, 18 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The author and activist Larry Kramer at an AIDS conference in New York in 1987. In the early 1980s, Mr. Kramer was among the first people to foresee that what had at first caused alarm as a rare form of cancer among gay men would spread worldwide and kill millions of people. Credit: Catherine McGann/Getty Images

[*I once saw Larry outside of the VIP performance of ‘A Normal Heart’. He was handing out fliers to people exiting the theater. I remember he, Urvashi Vaid and Kate Clinton exchanging warm greetings as he shoved a flier in their hands gruffly. It seems he never stopped pushing an HIV-related agenda. The other day a partner on the LUV project in Warsaw, Jakub Szczęsny sent me a two-word text ‘Larry Kramer’, and while I’m not sure what made Jakub think of him, he reminded me I want to commemorate his life of being importantly difficult on the LUV site! xo Todd]

HIV 2020: Aprendizajes para narración audiovisual con voz propia

Tue, 08 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

[*For HIV2020, Juan De La Mar screened his autobiographical film, De Gris a POSITHIVO as part of a panel on 1st person narration along with Mariana Iacono, Jorge Garrido and Erick Cid.]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqDEXTEgBRc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQWYMLOM9ro

“De Gris a POSITHIVO” es un documental autobiográfico sobre mi experiencia y la de mi familia tras ser diagnosticadx VIH+.

Compartiré reflexiones y aprendizajes con Mariana Iacono, Jorge Garrido y Erick Cid sobre las narraciones con voz propia frente a nuestro diagnóstico.

Biography – Hummingbirds

Mon, 07 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Eric Rhein
Hummingbirds – Installation of Six
2016, wire and paper, (each one is 16”x13”x2”)

For Eric Rhein there is a metaphysical aspect to creating his wire drawings of hummingbirds and having them go out into the world. “The Aztecs believed that hummingbirds were the reincarnation of warriors, and that their presence had the ability to transform conflict—both internal and external.”

“My mother keeps a hummingbird feeder outside of her sliding glass doors and takes great pleasure nurturing these seemingly delicate, yet powerful creatures, as she’s done with me through my years of living with HIV.”

Biography – Leaves

Mon, 07 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Eric Rhein
Frank the Visionkeeper (Frank Moore 1956-2002)
(from Leaves, an AIDS Memorial)
2013, wire and paper, 16”x13”x2”

1. There are more than 300 individuals represented in Leaves. I say more than 300 because I know that there are more than 300, but it’s challenging for me to keep track.
When I started the project in 1996 I set out to keep making tribute for everyone I knew to die from complications from AIDS going forward. That is how it’s grown to represent so many. I’ve held on to this concept, though I haven’t been able to keep up. So - I have a backlog of people to make leaves for. Some of this is in my head - some on scraps of paper. . . Over time I hope to be able to back track and fill in those I’ve yet to do. This is yet to be seen. There are corresponding aspects that I am behind in - Like writing biographies for those represented, and other texts. I could use some grant money and assistance / interns to help with these things.

LUV is messy

Fri, 04 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

LUV is messy, a can ‘o worms

… NO, rather a diorama encasing the heart, leaf, spaceship, firefly, hummingbird & ankh, symbols that advance its plot.

The HEART symbol came first. It was carved into a tree at the same time as the words, Luv ‘til it Hurts. The spelling of luv was changed forever, and the buxom HEART became a megaphone–pumping loudly and emitting reverberations. Desirous of speed, its incumbent pangs, swarm-like, fragment into projectiles before taking flight.

Exquisite Corpse

Tue, 01 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

[*The working group that comprises Luv ’til it Hurts–Brad Walrond, Paula Nishijima & Todd Lanier Lester–asked designer / installation author, Jakub Szczęsny to tailor Exquisite Corpse expography to the first 15 artists featuring in a traveling show on HIV and related stigmas. We envision that Exquisite Corpse will change from location to location. Szczęsny’s exhibition spaces (shown below) can be combined to fit the needs of new artists joining the show as well as a range of different host venues.]

One luv ends and another begins; HIV2020; etc.

Wed, 08 Jul 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Originally HIV2020 was to be held in Mexico City as an alternate meeting to AIDS2020 that was to be held in San Francisco. The biennial AIDS conference is a big show, and cities compete to host it for its business. There’s a tenet of the meeting that it alternates between ’north’ and ‘south’ countries. AIDS2018 was in Amsterdam, but for some reason the decision that it be in San Francisco was made, which in turn gave rise to HIV2020. Luv ’til it Hurts was launched at AIDS2018 with a postcard series by the artist Kairon Liu and his project, Humans as Hosts. And, since it’s a two-year project (at first), we have a major milestone now two years later as both AIDS2020 and HIV2020 go totally online due to COVID19.

luv rules

Wed, 17 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

When I first put out tent pegs for Luv ’til it Hurts (LUV), I framed it as a two-year period of R&D. The duration of the R&D is the (art) work. This is because I could guarantee to perform ‘research and development’ for a period that I determine duration. I aimed the process at a concept loosely termed ‘philanthropic device’, and then somewhere on this axis where process (asking questions / meeting people while focused on a theme) ‘meets’ identifiable / achievable structure or agglomeration of activities (culmination), I’ve been watching and nudging, teasing out and archiving the ensuing form. And, of course the ending can be the beginning of something else. If something substantive and/or timely comes out of this two-year marathon, I’ll see it. The period is up at end of June, and I’m on a keen outlook for what emerges. It might need new words to describe it, as it shouldn’t be run-of-the-mill. It will be clear soon. Of that, I’m sure.

Codename: Exquisite Corpse

Mon, 11 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000

[*When the project began, I wrote a piece entitled Why Make an Open Work? where I used some borrowed ‘game storming’ graphics to show the chaos needed within a project before it comes to a point. This logic showed up again when Adham Bakry made LUV’s first design elements (see image). While I don’t imagine that an art exhibition is the only ‘point’ of LUV’s two-year period of understanding, it does seem very compelling as we near the end of its initial two-year period. Codename: Exquisite Corpse! xo Todd]

Game of Swarms descends upon LUV

Mon, 11 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Game of Swarms will be thus a communication device as well as a register of the artistic research upon how dynamics of networks in nature can be used as a tool to understand new ways of relationality among humans and non-humans—based on the distribution of agency, rather than the centralisation of powers.

***

Collaboration is often considered a value, but not a standard behaviour in Western societies, as much of their thinking is rooted in the individualistic view of the subject—based on autonomy and self-determination. Game of Swarms is an artistic investigation and communication device that offers an alternative to that exceptional framework of the human, emphasising the collaborative behaviour of systems in nature.

1986: An Elegy for Our Coldest War

Mon, 27 Apr 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Could Be The Ballroom was always our Nuclear option
A rock scrabble bunker become a threshing floor
How we survived our Coldest War

A Mother a Father an entire house full of babies
tucked into mangers woven out of street corner filament
limber enough to parent those of us:

born with and with out parents
with and without islands

begat inside flags with and without stripes
while reading for A-level exams

A Visit With El Santo Taller de Cerámica (Bogotá)

Fri, 24 Apr 2020 00:00:00 +0000

*Spanish below

LTIH: Do you prefer being called Sergio or El Santo?

ES: You can call me anything, I like both, Sergio is the name that my parents gave me, and El Santo is the name that I gave to my work, I’ll tell you a little bit more about the story of El Santo.

I believe it is important to start by telling you that when I was very little my mother would scold me, saying in an ironic way: “you are a saint, you never do anything, absolutely nothing.” Hehehe. In our culture saints are important, and I confess that ever since I was a little boy I really liked the idea of saints as characters, beyond the religious, I like to think that there can exist beings with some type of magic power or presence, with a sensibility that can change things, make things, or achieve things. In religion, saints, and even God himself, are like superheroes who give their all for a better world. I think it is very beautiful for one to believe in something, and even to believe in something in order to live. So I got the idea that the saint could be this character that lives in me and that is manifested through art and drawing. Because I need to believe in him, in something.
And I believe that that is how the story of this character, or trademark, started in my art… And my saint really has fulfilled me, because I feel like, and I always tell my students, that I live the best version of Sergio, doing what I like best.

Learning from We (SOMOS)

Fri, 24 Apr 2020 00:00:00 +0000

[*Back at the end of 2019, a group of eight called SOMOS (or ‘SOMOS Mais’) formed in São Paulo to coordinate activities for December 1, International AIDS Day. The idea at first was that a collective might form to continue working together on our HIV-related artworks after the big holiday; however, the group didn’t stay together. A sweet event, Sarau Transante transpired on November 30th and members walked together the following day on São Paulo’s AIDS Walk. At the time I was unsure if anything had been ‘gained’ by all the effort that went into the group formation and its lone event; I reflected on our initiative in Using one ‘project’ to see another. Today, though, I can see some (new) things that I personally learned from the process. And, that’s nice! xo Todd]

More instructions for afterlife (next-LUV) designer

Fri, 24 Apr 2020 00:00:00 +0000

[*In February and back before Covid19 suspended travel (and life as we knew it) a group of LUV peeps met in NYC to work on the ’next-LUV’ or an afterlife for Luv ’til it Hurts, a project that I originally charted for only two years. Those two years are almost up. We received some instruction/planning questions from teammate Jakub Szczęsny at that time, and again now as a new group plan takes shape. xo Todd]

A pre-Covid 19 estimation of LUV

Mon, 20 Apr 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Brainstorming in New York at the Goethe Institut

[*From February 9-11, 2020, Luv ’til it Hurts was busy in NYC. LUV participated in Love Positive Women (a project by Jessica Lynn Whitbread) with a poetry and food-inspired event ‘LUV YEMANJÁ’. Food and a series of handmade porcelain candles were offered by artist Thiago Gonçalves and poet Brad Walrond offered a version of his work ‘1986’ paired with other poems to suit the occasion. On the following two days, a group including Jakub Szczęsny, Eric Rhein, Todd Lester, Brad Walrond, Paula Nishijima, Paula Querido Van Erven worked on the hopeful next phase of the LUV project. Within this process were statements describing the project from individual viewpoints, such as this one by Brad. xo Todd]

A preamble for shifting gears

Mon, 20 Apr 2020 00:00:00 +0000

[*After some meetings in NYC in February (2020), the LUV team set about a visioning process that should yield the project’s next phase–with a new level of clarity–by the middle of the year. We asked Brad Walrond to help us come up with a new introductory text (something like an artist statement), and we are gonna hold this back until we launch the next LUV. However, in our recent consensus-building process, Brad Walrond, Paula Nishijima and I all wrote (from where we were stood at that moment) about LUV. Here’s mine. xo Todd]

What would you do tomorrow if it was the last day of your life (VIHda)?

Mon, 20 Apr 2020 00:00:00 +0000

“De Gris a POSITHIVO” Documental Autobiográfico de Juan De La Mar que hace parte de Luv ’til it Hurts, se encuentra seleccionado para “Media Library 2020 - Visions Du Réel, Festival Internacional de Cine de Nyon”.

“De Gris a POSITHIVO,” an Autobiographical Documentary by Juan De La Mar, who is part of Luv ’til it Hurts, has been selected for the “Media Library 2020 - Visions Du Réel, Festival Internacional de Cine de Nyon.”

Still

Wed, 08 Apr 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Eric Rhein
Communion with Oak (self-portrait)
1998, gelatin silver print, 20”x16”

I walk with the shadows

of the men I’ve known,

and loved, and tasted,

and feel, even still,

the warmth of their breath

against my skin.

Eric Rhein

1992

_____________________

Eric Rhein is an artist living and working in New York. He has exhibited widely in the United States and abroad, and has been reviewed in the New York Times, Huffington Post, ARTnews, Vanity Fair, and Art in America. He is included in the Smithsonian Archives of American Art’s Visual Arts and the AIDS Epidemic: An Oral History Project. He is a founding member of Visual AIDS Archive Project, and more of his work can be found on his Artist+ Registry page.

I wanted to elaborate more on the concept of 'transcendence'

Thu, 02 Apr 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Image: ‘Hummingbirds’ (Installation of 6), 2016, by artist Eric Rhein

I wanted to elaborate more on the concept of ’transcendence’, mostly because I have some reservations about it. BUT, the fact that HIV is a disease that you live with took me to the place of transcendence. I departed from Eric’s work and paid especial attention to it. The aesthetics of the drawings helped to describe such transcendence in the LTIH project. (more about it later)

Conversa com Vinicius Couto (PT/EN)

Tue, 31 Mar 2020 00:00:00 +0000

[*Early this year I got the chance to talk to Vinicius Couto in São Paulo about three strands of his work. The article contains images from a performance he made in São Paulo, Rio and Cairo. I was particularly interested in his idea of getting HIV+ people together, as well as what he says on ‘aesthetics’. His initial interview took place before COVID19, and I asked for clarification on his idea for getting people together a few days ago. xo Todd]

Fresh Designs for Love Positive Women 2020

Tue, 31 Mar 2020 00:00:00 +0000

[On the occasion of Love Positive Women 2020, a project by Jessica Lynn Whitbread and partners around the world, Colombian graphic artist, Power Paola offered some new Spanish-language designs, which can be used for years to come as well. I met Power Paola through Daniel Santiago Salguero, who convened the Luciérnagas laboratory. Thanks Daniel and Power Paola!! xo Todd]

A Re-imagination of Policy and Health (2 of 2)

Mon, 16 Mar 2020 00:00:00 +0000

[*The Arts-Policy Nexus, a Health-Focused Artist Roundtable (A.RT), and this policy paper are all ideas - a program and two of its byproducts - I came up with as an artist and then found institutions with the capacity to help me realize. The goal of this policy paper (originally published by the World Policy Journal on June 27th, 2017) is to keep artists central to the policymaking process. xo Todd]

Citizen voices are increasingly recognized as essential to forming policies and promoting health in inclusive, holistic ways. Health policies are starting to incorporate a broader set of factors that contribute to health, while health-care providers are embracing active participation on the part of their clients. As the scope of policy and health expand, artistic practice and thought are ideally situated to become tools to help us embrace broader notions of individual and community health, along with our (perceived and actual) ability to take action on behalf of ourselves and our communities—allowing us to re-imagine approaches to health and policymaking in the process.

ART, POLICY, AND WELLNESS (1 of 2)

Mon, 16 Mar 2020 00:00:00 +0000

[*A few years back, I created a meeting concept called Artist Roundtable (or A.RT) … I want to resuscitate this particular discussion on health and wellness in order to share a unique policy paper that came thereafter as byproduct. This article was originally published by the World Policy Journal on June 9th, 2015_. xo Todd]_

What would a policy that incorporates our ideas of medicine look like?

On Friday, May 1, Artist Roundtable (A.RT) sought to answer this question during its third event, hosted by the World Policy Institute’s Arts-Policy Nexus. Developed by Todd Lester, director of Arts-Policy Nexus, A.RT is an approach to bridging different disciplines in creative work and policy-making as well as addressing crucial issues from varied directions.

Coming Out of the Web 2.0 Closet

Mon, 09 Mar 2020 00:00:00 +0000

[*Five or so years ago Canadian artist Niki Singleton and I made a Facebook project called Coming Out of the Web 2.0 Closet. We both had a story whereby ‘friends’ or family members had used social media to shun us or tell us we were going to hell or something similar for being gay, and out. A couple more friends from NYC and Beirut gave us their stories to render in five-frame comic strips. I hear HIV being referred to in a variety of coded ways (like having a House In Virginia), and for sure we talk about it as a second closet to come out of … so I decided to reboot this project here in the LUV scrapbook (of things). I’m also really fond of another work we made called Host-an-Occupier along with Danish collective Wooloo and Mexican-American artist Alicia Marvan. xo Todd]

Steal This Game

Mon, 09 Mar 2020 00:00:00 +0000

‘Stealing’ the LUV Game is a bit easier than Hoffman’s book. It is free to begin with. I tell the story of how the LUV Game came about first as an idea from a young Egyptian designer in a description of ACT I, considering how one might discuss (or signal a safe discussion on) HIV in a place like Cairo … starting with a sticker of a game tile he envisioned on the back of a laptop…something that would ‘call out’ to someone entering a busy cafe. Something iconic (a brand of sorts) but coded…like something one learns about on social media but that isn’t explicit in form or words. From the original idea had in Port Said along the edge of the Suez Canal, the game spilled out and its pieces (or tiles) and simple instructions in 10 different languages are available online for download and printing in B/W or color. The game has been test-played in São Paulo during the December 1st (2019) AIDS Walk in Portuguese; in Grenoble with Ankh Association in French and Arabic; and in Bogotá at the culmination of the Luciérnagas Laboratory in Spanish.

artHIVism, Condom Art & a lifetime of caring

Fri, 06 Mar 2020 00:00:00 +0000

[*A longer EN language interview is available below for download; Todd Lanier Lester interviews Adriana Bertini for LUV.]

TLL: We met first in Barcelona at the 14th International AIDS Conference in 2002. I don’t remember too much about the trip, except that I was presenting a poster with a colleague on community sensitization work on HIV/AIDS we’d done together in the East Province of Cameroon as US Peace Corps volunteers. Again, a very long time ago.

Relatoría última sesión Luciérnagas - Last Luciérnagas Session Report

Fri, 21 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Image taken at Oct 25 (2019) Luciérnagas performance

Before the presentation we did some in situ rehearsals, although they were never enough, we did them. The Botanical Garden is a very bureaucratic institution and it was difficult to manage the space for more preparations. For these last sessions we got together Eudes Toncel, a Guajiro Colombian artist, writer, and anthropologist, with special interest in the themes of gender and afro cultures. Almost all of us arrived in time for the presentation. Laura Figueroan, a very good friend of mine, came over to help us with the details, and brought us ski masks, which were intervened upon with fancy black stones, which went really well with the costumes. We had been cooking up the LED lights in the last weeks, with the help of Duvan Puerto, who arrived in the project thanks to Juan Sebastián Jaramillo and the creativity and technology agency that they worked at. Megan Cross Star, a member of the laboratory, was one of the people who had the most interest in the process, and especially in her costume for this night. She brought jewelry, make up, and was truly very elegant. As it was the night at the Botanical Garden that is open and free, many people came. More than we expected. After 6 months of planning and speculation , the day had arrived. It rained a lot that week, but luckily this day was clear, and both the members of the lab, as well as the visitors, were all able to calmly visit the Botanical Garden.

Candles & Hearts #LPW2020

Wed, 19 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000

[*Working together with the City of São Paulo office of Human Rights, George Ferraz prepared (styled) two downtown cultural spaces for Love Positive Women 2020 with the theme of Yemanjá and using the posters designed by Thiago. A message from the Office of Human Rights was distributed along with Valentines Day cards. The Human Rights flier encourages HIV+ women to use the city’s three citizenship centers for meetings any time of the year, and provides a QR Code to find more info easily. Both Tapera Taperá bar and esponja spaces in São Paulo hosted Love Positive Women-related info / set-ups. Thiago made the candles for an event in NYC held on February 9th. George helped with the event too, making some more cloth hearts, like the ones distributed in São Paulo and Khartoum. There were extra hearts and we mailed them to Puerto Rico with Valentines cards. Some also went to the cast of I, OF COURSE, WAS LIVID, a Love Positive Women-affiliated event at Housing Works bookstore. And, about 15 leftover candles go on to the VisualAIDS Women’s Empowerment Art Therapy Workshops. Thanks guys! xo, Todd]

Scrapbook, Love Positive Women 2020 (#LPW2020)

Sun, 16 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000

[*When I asked NYC-based artist Thiago Correia Gonçalves if he’d like to help make a Love Positive Women event, he proposed making Bobó (shrimp and cassava stew) for Yemanjá, the goddess for fishermen who is celebrated on February 2nd in Brasil. When I asked poet Brad Walrond to participate, I’d already seen a poem ‘Yemaya’ in his forthcoming book Every Where Alien. He offered his 1986, Yemaya and other poems. DIG Ferreira, Jesse Hawkes, Livia Alexander, George Ferraz and others helped out. George made another batch of cloth hearts for attendees to the February 9th, NYC event. In addition to Bobó, Thiago made dendê or palm oil-infused candles that each guest would light upon arrival and then take home as a keepsake from the night. Thiago let me help a little making the wax and filling the candles the night before … and puréeing the cassava. xo todd]

Certain Things between stigma and love #LPW2020

Fri, 14 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000

About fifteen years ago, my friend Dani called me to help her with the costume for a short film. She asked me for red clothes and accessories—specifically, an old brooch of fake ruby she knew I had. “Why red?” I asked. “Because this is a story about HIV,” she justified and quickly briefed me about the project, called Certas Coisas (Certain Things). Here is the synopsis: the protagonist, who just found out he was HIV+, dives into a feeling of loneliness and isolation. It was like his individual timeline had been drastically interrupted, and he couldn’t go forward or take the path back. Instead, he would have to forge his own way, apart from the others—or, the ‘other’ was now him. The frustration of the perspective of a solitary life takes him on a daydream in which, through the lens of special glasses, he can identify HIV+ people by a red mark on their faces.

'Maidei', Scenes 9, 10 #LPW2020

Thu, 13 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Daniel Santiago Salguero interviews Jacqueline Sanchez for Luciérnagas #LPW2020

Wed, 12 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000

DSS: Buenas tarde, Jaque, gracias por estar aquí y colaborar con esta entrevista. Te voy a hacer unas preguntas que ya conoces. Si no quieres responder o te sientes incómoda podemos parar y no hay problema.

¿Hace cuánto descubriste que tienes VIH? ¿Cómo ha sido todo desde entonces?

JS: Bueno, yo descubrí que tengo el virus del VIH desde noviembre del 2015. En un centro asistencial de mi barrio estaban en una campaña y me propusieron hacer la prueba, ahí me enteré. Para mi ha sido un poco complicado pero quiero salir adelante, surgir. Esto ha cambiado mi vida notablemente.

‘Maidei’, Scenes 6, 7, 8 #LPW2020

Tue, 11 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Viral Love #LPW2020

Mon, 10 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000

[*I first met Oma working in the legal aid clinic for Iraqi refugees in Cairo set up by Barbara Harrell-Bond back in 2007. To read more about our background, check out A series for LovePositiveWomen2020 and What do a Sudanese Mom Search the Internet for?, as well as a description of LUV’s ACT 1.5 (LovePositiveWomen2020). Thanks for being there, Oma! xo Todd]

Viral Love, Unconditional One!

Friend’s Love

I enjoyed having a very special and unique friendship with few yet very unique persons. As a Sudanese woman, it is not a frequent thing to happen. That adds more allure to the whole thing, it is such a blessing, a grace, and a gift from the greatest lover ever: “Allah,” I muchly thank for his almighty!

'Maidei', Scenes 4 & 5 #LPW2020

Sun, 09 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Behind the Curtain #LPW2020

Sat, 08 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Behind the curtain

“أنا مريضة إيدز ونفسى أتعامل كبنى آدمة، معملتش حاجة غلط علشان المجتمع ينبذنى ولما بمرض مش بلاقى دكتور يعاملنى كويس، وبقيت أخاف من الناس فاضطرت لارتداء النقاب خوفا من تعرف الناس على شخصيتى عند اللجوء لتلقى العلاج. "

“فى عام 2006 ظهرت الأعراض الأولية كإسهال وترجيع وسخونية، وفقدت الكثير من وزنى فبعد أن كان 83 كجم أصبح 45 كجم دون أن أعلم السبب، وعلى الرغم من أنى أجريت الكثير من الفحوصات والتحاليل التى حيرت الأطباء وشخصها الكثيرون بأنها مشاكل فى المعدة أو مرض الدفتيريا”.

'Maidei', Scene 3 #LPW2020

Fri, 07 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Interview with Cadu Oliveira on LGBTQIA+ organizing in São Paulo #LPW2020

Thu, 06 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000

LTIH: You have been involved with LGBT and HIV activism for some time now. How long have you been doing this in São Paulo?

CO: My trajectory with activism began from 1996 to 2007, in Jundiaí, with people who have lost their homes. At this point, matters such as HIV/Aids and drug abuse were already present in my life. It was in this scenario that I began to act in intersectional militancy, although it was still less centralized on LGBTs and, instead, oriented towards this population’s more structural conditions. However, I had already done research for LGBT news outlets, notedly for SuiGeneris Magazine.

'Maidei', Scene 2 #LPW2020

Wed, 05 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Emanuel Brauna-Lechat interviews Momô de Oliveira #LPW2020

Tue, 04 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000

EBL: Momô, qual a sua avaliação sobre o cenário cinematográfico de um modo geral no Brasil?

MO: Vejo o cenário cinematográfico no Brasil com muitas incertezas, apesar de sabermos recentemente que para o ano de 2020 grandes nomes do STREAM irão injetar alguns milhões no setor, o que é muito positivo, não teremos, por outros lado, políticas públicas neste sentido e, naturalmente, a comunidade mais carente não será tocada por essas ações do setor privado. Ao meu ver, faltam mais projetos que envolvam a parcela menos favorecida da população.

'Maidei', Synopsis + Scene 1 #LPW2020

Mon, 03 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Bobó for Yemanjá #LPW2020

Sun, 02 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000

[*When I asked Thiago if he’d like to make a meal in NYC–something we’ve done together a few times in São Paulo and once in Bamako–he said yes and immediately suggested making an offering to Iemanjá. We’ve worked together since 2012 (usu. on Lanchonete.org projects), and I imagined that the idea would be good. When I heard Iemanjá and given the date of our NYC performance (Feb 9), I immediately thought of making it a Love Positive Women 2020 event. It’s gonna be really cool. George saw the NYC design around the time that both esponja and Tapera Taperá (cultural spaces here in São Paulo) agreed to be styled for Amem Mulheres Positivas/Love Positive Women 2020. So then came Portuguese and Spanish versions of the same poster, pared down. If in São Paulo, drop by esponja or Tapera Taperá, and in NYC, let us know if you’re free on the 9th. xo todd et al]

Feasting with Panthers (and Palestine): Edmund White's Jean Genet #LPW2020

Sat, 01 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000

If writing is a committed utopian action, then the Jean Genet of Edmund White’s engaging, impressive, transformative Genet: A Biography was the epitome of manic depression. Genet wrote his five novels in five years, from 1942-47. After seven years of sadness and silence, he wrote his three best known plays in two years. The subsequent 1960’s were filled with death as his lover, Abdallah (a high wire performer) committed suicide, his agent and English translator Bernard Fruchtman committed suicide, and Genet himself tried to commit suicide. Then he entered into the other utopian endeavor: activism. From 1970 until his death in 1986, Genet was aligned with oppressed people and supported them in energetic ways, on their terms and on his own. White calls him “an apostle of the wretched of the earth.”

A series for LovePositiveWomen2020; #LPW2020, pre-C

Fri, 31 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Image: $oropositiva, by Micaela Cyrino for LovePositiveWomen2019
Collage on greaseproof paper and serigraphy
30 x 40cm

In some ways the whole LUV experience has geared us up for Love Positive Women 2020. In March 2019 I visited Egypt and afterwards, Paris where I met the Ankh (Arab Network for Knowledge on Human Rights) Association. The Ankh guys moved to Paris after a long period of activism on access to HIV meds in Cairo. From Paris they made the Points of Life exhibit that featured artists and activists from Egypt and the Middle East living with HIV. ‘Behind the Curtain’ is an image and text by Iman, an artist living in Egypt. Daniel Santiago Salguero’s project, Luciérnagas began with the idea to consider the changing situation–HIV info, support and medication access–in Bogotá with new arrivals of Venezuelans in the wake of that country’s financial crisis. It ended as an experimental performance in Bogotá’s Botanical Gardens. I met Jackie during the project’s conclusion in October 2019. Daniel interviews her for LovePositiveWomen2020 and further reflects on the Luciérnagas process.

Love Positive Women in AR/PT/ES

Fri, 31 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000

[*It is very exciting (and an honor) to get to imagine and implement ideas for Love Positive Women 2020 in Khartoum (Sudan), New York City (US), São Paulo (Brasil) and other places in South America. Designer Adham Bakry (Port Said/Cairo) came up with a version of the Love Positive Women insignia in Arabic and Gustavo Marcasse in both Portuguese and Spanish. Love Positive Women is a project by Jessica Whitbread. xo Todd]

Cidade Queer, a film

Thu, 30 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Watch: Queer City / Cicade Queer, by Danila Bustamante.

Bodies that listen, dance, resist, manifest and become visible in our contemporary city. Bodies that dance the sounds of funk music, rap, samba, voguing, waacking, among other sonic styles of contestation, resistance and struggle. Through talks, dinners, experiences and exchanges, a city seeks to discuss how we live, work, share and survive the different LGBT+ stories and realities. The mini-documentary “Cidade Queer / Queer City”, directed by Danila Bustamante, takes its name from a 2016 site-specific, collective curatorial process in São Paulo, Brazil.

INGABIRE “Gift” (2005); #LPW2020, pre-A

Thu, 30 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Watch: INGABIRE “Gift” (2005), by Jesse Hawkes.

For its first Rwandan Film Festival in 2005, the Rwanda Cinema Centre helped several young directors and groups of actors to make films on important issues in Rwanda. The film “Ingabire” was based on an original musical theatre piece that was created by a group of high school students at an HIV Prevention conference earlier in the year. It was based on true stories from their lives and lives of their friends. The film still resonates today. During a recent Global Youth Connect workshop, I showed this film and the participants insisted that “stigma against people living with HIV does not exist in Rwanda today.” Little did they know that there was a GYC delegate from Rwanda standing in that room who didn’t disclose their status among these peers for fear of stigma. Apologies for the subtitles, but we created it in two days, and English was not one of the key languages of the staff at that time. Rwanda has since shifted from French to English as its official second language of instruction in schools after Kinyarwanda, which is the language you hear in the film.

What I'm learning about participatory art; #LPW2020, pre-B & Elpenor method, #2

Thu, 30 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000

This year Love Positive Women is so big for us it constitutes an ACT … Act 1.5 to be exact. The acts are dramaturgically useful for steering Luv ’til it Hurts toward its endpoint in mid-2020, and in that way reveal various ‘assemblages’ (or intense clusters) along the two-year course. While the ‘business plan’ of ACT II is about to be revealed (around Feb 14) with a graphic poster by Brasilian illustrator, chef, Umbandista and cat lover, PogoLand (who says artists don’t make worlds?), the co-making of activities in São Paulo, Khartoum and NYC for Love Positive Women 2020 and sequencing 14 days of women-authored and -focused online content took on a life (or ‘act’ as it were) of its own. Working with Canadian artist, Jessica Whitbread and using her ‘open source’ model for the Love Positive Women fourteen-day holiday has been a labor of LUV. And as such, we’ve learned some things. When we first started talking about her work in 2018, Jessica sent me the 2018 Love Positive Women holiday implementation guide (please download and use). I have written before on the LUV site about making (or why making) an ‘open work’, which is a reference to Umberto Eco’s writing at length on the prospect. Whether duration is called out by name or not, an open or open source work must consider duration and endurance. And, I think, whether it is growing in the intended direction over time. I’ve made three durational, rights-themed, multi-stakeholder projects for 10, 5 and 2 years respectively. So, I am familiar with the vernacular and semantics–and a new phrase, ‘articulation curve’–involved in the creation of a long-term project, and in this case a new 14-day holiday to celebrate positive women.

What Does a Queer Urban Future Look Like?

Tue, 28 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000

[ *Back during the making of Cidade Queer (an inquiry opened by Lanchonete.org), I got the chance to ask some colleagues their views on queerness and a right to the city. I asked Sarah Schulman if ‘the urban’—yes, cities as well as urban encounters…but also the space and right(s) to live in, work in, and share the contemporary city—is an important source or reference for her work? Jose Esteban Muñoz begins his book, “Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity” (2009), with these words: “Queerness is an aspiration toward the future. To be queer is to imagine better possible futures.” So I guess what I’m asking is what a queer urban future might look/feel like to you? xo, Todd ]

Please, touch me (PT/EN)

Tue, 21 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000

[*Alberto Pereira Jr. first made ‘Please, touch me’ for a 2019 workshop in São Paulo. His production notes are the third in a series that also includes a project abstract #movingtarget and creative writing, ELE. xo, Todd]

Instigado por um workshop realizado no instituto Itaú Cultural, sobre estigma e produção artística contemporânea em relação ao tema HIV/Aids, realizei a minha segunda saída do armário: vivendo há 10 anos com HIV, criei a performance “Por favor, toque-me”, revelando meu status positivo e convidando o público a ressignificar a imagem pré-concebida de um corpo positivo.

closing doors

Fri, 17 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Field of Action: curatorial interview b/w Kathleen Bitetti & Todd Lester (MAP Catalog 2013)

Fri, 17 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Instructions from next-LUV designer for NYC mtg

Fri, 17 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000

[*Polish artist and architect, Jakub Szczęsny is helping to lead ACT III. LUV’s denouement is gonna be a blast! Stay tuned!!]

Astraea's Multi-Gendered Work (repost from 2011)

Thu, 16 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000

WHERE: USA - New York

I first encountered the work of Astraea in 2007. I was living in Egypt and met some of the sexuality rights movement-builders from the Arab region when they passed through Cairo. One such pioneer, Rauda Marcos, co-founded Aswat, a Palestinian Lesbian Women’s organization. She told me about Aswat’s work, which is made possible both by members’ determination and funding from Astraea. Aswat members held community clean-up days taking care of their neighborhoods and leading by example. According to Rauda, the first step was to show strength in numbers. Community clean-up days were a simple tactic to be out, proud and present in the community.

Democracia é o tema da Parada do Orgulho LGBT de São Paulo em 2020 e HIV/AIDS é o tema de 2021

Wed, 15 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000

A Associação da Parada do Orgulho LGBT de São Paulo, ONG responsável pela maior Parada LGBT do Mundo, vem comunicar que após reuniões realizadas nos meses de Novembro e Dezembro/2019, com a participação da Sociedade Civil (mediante convite e inscrição prévia) e das Pessoas Associadas, onde resultaram na sugestão e seleção de dois temas como os mais votados: DEMOCRACIA e HIV/AIDS, na data de ontem (09/01/2020), após explanação pelos defensores dos referidos temas, e após votação dos Associados presentes*, o tema escolhido para a 24a Parada do Orgulho LGBT de São Paulo 2020 é DEMOCRACIA, tendo em vista todo cenário político e social, com o desmonte nas áreas da saúde, na educação e na cultura, que não só atinge a comunidade LGBT, e sim toda sociedade.

contract work

Tue, 14 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000

ELE

Mon, 13 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Levantou-se. Dentro da privada, mescla de prazer e necessidade. A. se viu refletido no espelho pela primeira vez. Olhos ainda vermelhos, cabelo desgrenhado, suor na face e no torso nu. Ela abriu o chuveiro e, dessa vez, foi ágil ao manejar a temperatura da água. Sorriu. Pegou a primeira toalha disponível. Macia. Enxugou-se sem pressa, mas determinado. Toalha amarrada na cintura, encaminhou-se em direção à sala. Da escada, podia ver o outro deitado no sofá. Êxtase. Preguiça. Conforto. Um baseado no canto de sua boca, pronto para ser fumado. Sorriso. “Meu namorado tem esse mesmo pudor”, disse, com uma naturalidade desconcertante, sem se mexer do sofá. “Namorado?”, pensou A. Não deixou o pensamento, a revelação, chegar a superfície de seus gestos. Não estava surpreso. Nem triste. Sentou do lado do acompanhante, tomou-lhe o baseado e fumou. Da porta, permitiram-se um último beijo. A intimidade da última hora parecia pender em uma corda bamba. A despedida era inevitável. E mesmo assim um ritual estranho para A. Para o outro era o oposto. Ainda nu, pressionou-o para um último abraço, beijo, amasso. Apertou-lhe a bunda e disparou: “É natural?”. A. sorriu amarelo. O acompanhante não percebeu. “Genética”, disse, displicente. Porta fechada. Na rua, sacou de um bolso o celular. Notificações aleatórias. Do outro bolso, o fone de ouvido. A. precisava de um estímulo para marchar para casa. Encontrou a música e seguiu.

Socket Wrench

Fri, 10 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000

[*A few years ago (2013), graphic artist Beldan Sezen was in the Netherlands and needed some quick photos of a historic scene. The graphic short she was making is called HOMOE, set in 1964 pre-Stonewall NYC, about a man remembering the homophobic murder of his neighbor “back in the day.” We decided to trade my photo-taking for some design work on a concept I sent to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation called Socket Wrench.]

borinquen

Thu, 09 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000

considering attach-ability (#2)

Wed, 08 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000

hi guys,

So, I’ve had an idea for you both for around 6 months now and have regrettably failed to share it in a robust form. I would like to do so now.

We may thank Brad Walrond for texting with me overnight (why he was awake, I do not know:). Jonathan, Brad archives Pony’s work and/or that of his house.

Jonathan, remember when I mentioned I wanted to talk to you on insta the other day. Well, maybe we can do that in person on February 9th. I want to invite you to a performance at the home of Livia Alexander. It is rumored that Brad will perform there/then. Pony, you are most welcome also.

remembering my first AIDS work

Wed, 08 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000

I cannot remember what was my first AIDS work. It was either flying from Cameroon to South Africa with my wife (at the time) to attend and volunteer at the Durban AIDS Conference in 2000, or walking with Minette and ‘her girls’ on International AIDS Day (1999 or 2000?) on the dirt roads of Batouri in the East Province of Cameroon.

The AIDS Conference was heady given its location. I remember talks by both Nelson and Winnie Mandela as well as Justice Edwin Cameron. Among other things. Zackie Achmat and the Treatment Action Campaign loom large in my memory.

#movingtarget

Tue, 07 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000

alvos desde sempre

porque não hegemônicos

corpos reclassificados

incômodos

inconformes

marginais seculares

preto

feminino

não-binário

trans

intersexual

refugiado

positivo

imigrado

expulso

indígena

sacrificado

Mas em movimento!

Body Work and conception: Alberto Pereira Jr. @albertopereirajr
Body Art: DIG Ferreira @digferreira
Images: Flavio Melgarejo @ffmelgarejo

hiv / art / establishment (#1)

Sat, 28 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000

[*The pink elephant image is borrowed from a Facebook intervention made by Niki Singleton and Todd Lanier Lester several years ago called Coming out of the Web 2.0 Closet.]

There is definitely an HIV art establishment. I have met it in a few forms over the first 3/4 of Luv ’til it Hurts, a two-year project that also aspires to elicit a few forms. In fact, I guess this broad ’establishment’ may have factored into the form of LUV in the first place. I am an artist who works in organizational or immaterial form now for almost twenty-years. This can also be other things at the same time, like ‘site specific’ as was Lanchonete.org or a field-invading ‘sea change’ as I hoped freeDimensional would become. For the purposes of this field note, I would say that content or theme or issue inform the form(s) that are aimed for. LUV aspires to forge a philanthropic device (or mechanism) that can be taken and used freely at the end of the two-year process, which will be around July 2020 and when it is fully explained. I also think that style, affect and notions of gesture inform ‘forms’. In my own practice I understand that these styles, affects and attempts at gesture can be rehearsed over years and in different contexts.

Dora Não Cansou de Viver... [A film in the making]

Wed, 25 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000

[Emanuel Brauna-Lechat is a filmmaker from Maceió. ‘Dora Não Cansou de Viver…’ is a short film about many things, including access to healthcare and the precarity of daily life in Brasil. Manu needs some help finishing the film before April 7th, World Health Day 2020. One simple way to share holiday cheer (and some dough) is by giving to his crowdfunding campaign on Catarse, which supports the final film shoot in late February. xo, Todd]

1001+ Japanese fighter pilots

Tue, 24 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000

I vomited tonight … earlier today.

I had taken an ecstasy pill. I may have used a couple other things as well. I’m a Taurus ‘control freak’, I’m told. So, while the idea of drugging up for going out may seem a bit careless, I also monitor my anti-depression medication, and not so long ago decided with my doctor to change my HIV meds.

As I said in ‘we use drugs’, or was it ‘drugs’ .. but that yes, we do use drugs. Or so it seems.

Capitalismo Viral

Tue, 24 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000

[*Bruno Mendonça e Felipe Caprestano - Terra Falsa (parte do projeto “Nenhuma Intenção Revolucionária”)]

O uso da palavra vírus para além do campo das ciências biológicas teve início a partir da década de 1980 com o desenvolvimento da cultura hacker, assim como ao longo da mesma década foi sendo assumido por outras áreas.

Essa passagem conceitual de um objeto estudado pela área das ciências
biológicas para outras disciplinas corresponde de forma bastante direta ao que os linguistas George Lakoff e Mark Johnson irão abordar como “metáfora conceitual”, ou seja, a atualização cognitiva de uma ideia. Essa atualização corresponde também a uma atualização cultural, social e político-econômica que ressignifica uma palavra, expressão ou conceito para dar conta de um novo contexto.

How LUV is research, in part (part 1)

Tue, 24 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000

[* For the LUV site, this is part one of a set. Let’s call it the Elpenor Set. See part two, here.]

The purpose of this ’entry’ is to introduce Ismar Tirelli Neto. I’m writing a book right now. It’s called Variations in Worldmaking. I can’t wait until it’s finished because it might be driving me crazy. It’s like birthing a set of gremlins … or so it presently seems. The book covers the span of my three durational, multi-stakeholder, rights-focused works. freeDimensional was a ten-year focus on free expression, artist safety and shelter. Lanchonete.org was a site-specific (São Paulo) five-year focus on the right to the city. And, Luv ’til it Hurts is a two-year focus on HIV and stigma. I chose to begin the book in the same time period as the two years of LUV, July 2018-2020. I thought that one process might help the other. At least in my head. They are both (art) works. I am applying a methodology for durational, multi-stakeholder, rights-focused projects that has been developed over the course of freeDimensional, Lanchonete.org and in giving support to other projects, in the making of Luv ’til it Hurts. I think the same can be said for the making of Lanchonete.org drawing on lessons learned from freeDimensional, but I was not concurrently writing criticism in that instance. Ishmar is working with me on the book, and also features in the book. We started conjuring these relations during a poetry workshop he offered at São João Farm Residency in Rio State (Brasil), and now we meet weekly for a writing class. Below is Ishmar’s ‘opener’ from an excerpt of the book in which I describe its 20 characters.

Some tenets of Elpenor thought (part 2)

Tue, 24 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000

[* For the LUV site, this is part two of a set. Let’s call it the Elpenor Set. See part one, here.]

It never ceases to baffle and amaze me whenever an association between Elpenor – a decidedly minor character in Homer’s Odyssey – and an idea of methodology crops up in my presence. Akin to being caught midfall (pants down). It is a kinship that plunges me from a secure apex, a terrace (a spacing out) of experience into abstraction, the amplest of falls, towards the world. One thinks [during the fall]: what exactly is a methodology? What is it made of, what are its parameters? Solid and well-built as the Achaen ships, wouldn’t a methodology forcefully entail global applicability – or, better still, isn’t the efficaciousness of any given methodology ultimately tested in and by socially intricate contexts? Elpenor translated, carried over into a methodology. For me, it seems startingly easy to squash a methodology: one minor incoherence is enough, one dicey corner, one false move. It seems to me even easier to destruct a model. If, on the one hand, I am capable of recognizing Elpenor’s potential as a “conceptual character” such as the ones presented by Deleuze and Guattari in “What is Philosophy?”; if I am able to interpret him as a body of diligences and prescriptions – a sort of lens through which the world into which we are falling is simultaneously sought after, a world that grows more and more clear-cut as we approach the asphalt –, it is also my innermost guess that an identical link could be established between a certain postural inclination and the harmless Choreocampa elpenor caterpillar, one of the mimetic insects listed by Caillois in his Man, Play & Games. The caterpillar in question, if perceived to be threatened, operates in itself a physical mutation termed terrifying by the author; in taking upon itself the likeness of a serpent, it manages to fend off lizards and small birds. Through an act of camouflage, a momentary absence from “self”, the caterpillar postpones its death. The analogy doesn’t seem that far-fetched once we take into consideration that both beings have developed (evolved) strategies to go unnoticed – in the mythical world and in the natural world. Were it not the case, how else could we justify Elpenor’s survival through so many dangers – a character repeatedly referred to as inept at warfare and somewhat dumb? Both Elpenor and the caterpillar that echoes his name help compose a gallery of beings unfairly flattened into the singular episodes they are at the forefront of – in most cases, episodes taking place in other people’s lives – the predator’s, the hero’s – in a supposedly general circumstance that divorces the hero, the “true” virtuous hero, from all those who surround him; characters which seem to exist solely in relation to a stilled organizational nexus oft emblemed by a protagonist who is in some way exceptional. I think of counter- types such as Bartleby, the scrivener – the Incredible Shrinking Man – and finally Jepthe’s daughter, an anonymous character from the Hebrew Bible who seems to serve the single purpose of illustrating a most dubious idea of sacrifice. Characters about whom we know next to nothing; characters we know just enough about, however, so as to feel compelled to side with them, to defend their opacity.

Act 1 is Over

Fri, 20 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000

[ACT I entailed a lot of things, and one of the most significant outputs is a GAME made by project members and artists/designers in Egypt. There is also this very cool GIF made by Brazilian designer, Gustavo Marcasse. Overall, ACT I was meant to be rather playful! Now, we’re working on ACT I.5 in support of Love Positive Women, Feb. 2020:]

اكيد فى امل (THERE IS ALWAYS HOPE)

Tue, 17 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000

[Abazar Hamid was forced to leave Sudan for singing peace songs during its civil war and the Darfur conflict. I met him when I was working for freeDimensional in Cairo (Egypt) through a collaboration with the Townhouse Gallery called TADAMON (solidarity) that organized with Cairo’s various refugee communities. Cairo is where Abazar first went into exile. Over the years Abazar and I have kept up, and we’re now working on a safe (cultural) space project back in Khartoum. I love to hear him sing Bob Marley, and so the other day I asked him if he’s ever sang about HIV/AIDS. Of course he has … he sent us this song اكيد فى امل (THERE IS ALWAYS HOPE). Enjoy, xo Todd]

drugs

Sat, 14 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000

We take drugs.

A colleague of mine, Carué Contreiras gives away spices and herbs in his HIV med bottles. Artist Kairon Liu ( 劉仁凱 ) makes portraits in which he asks pill bottles to be among other memorabilia (signs of life). I luv mine.

But actually I’m talking about party drugs and entrée to harder ones.

George and I were packing our things as the bottle of liquid Ketamine arrived to the party. I had been coerced into chipping in on it, but didn’t plan to use the powder Gabriel would cook down from the liquid.

What do a Sudanese Mom Search the Internet for?

Sat, 14 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Sudanese like other people of this planet, search for many things, some are really important researches and of course there are other things that are also important, …,etc!
For me I am a Sudanese, I search every day about jobs for Home Based or Remote Arabic Web Content Writers. Secondly in order come searches for guides, guide to write, guide to sew, guide to solve children problems, guide to education, guide to learn, and a lot of self learning projects and subjects. Other times I research about home remedies for health issues, skin and hair care. I also search about easy and quick recipes that is good for old people, toddlers and people with health issues.
I search for uses of a word, or a meaning of another, film reviews, book reviews, and names of actors, actresses and scientists or doctors.
Some times I search for good erotic books and stories, I look sometimes for free photos to use for my numerous profiles on micro-service web platforms. I search for photos of cosmetics and medications, and children, or adult fashion designs.

No quiero una cinta roja en tu cacerola: Latinoamérica.

Wed, 11 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000

No solo un día al año, no solo el primero de diciembre necesitamos que pongas en tus perfiles cintas rojas y recuerdes todos los grandes personajes que nos ha arrebatado este virus, que nos ha arrebatado el silencio, que nos ha arrebatado la complicidad del Estado y de la industria farmacéutica.

No solo necesitamos una cinta roja en tu cacerola. Necesitamos que se hable del VIH con nombre propio, con nosotrxs, que se deje de hablar –lo poco que se habla POR nosotrxs y SIN nosotrxs-.

The ideas for Partner Tiles

Mon, 09 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000

The original idea for an iconic tile came from Saouf in Port Said. He imagined what it would be like to walk into a Cairo cafe and see an iconic tile on the back of a laptop. A tile that let him know (if he so desired) he could talk to this person about HIV. Later as the game took shape, Adham created a signature tile in the shape of an ‘all lines’ stylized heart. This heart carried the LUV logo at first and then became the template to share partner logos.

New Toolkit by CLAC and MPact for Access to Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria

Fri, 06 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000

In order to facilitate access to funding from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, the Community Leadership and Action Collaborative (CLAC) created a toolkit for key population-led grassroots organizations, which can be downloaded for free online.

Download the toolkit here (English)

Using one 'project' to see another

Fri, 06 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000

This article is a field [luv] note to Luciérnagas and friends in Bogotá. I was there for a project by Daniel Santiago Salguero and his HIV+ peers. Fireflies, this is the word in Spanish for fireflies.

Speaking of fireflies, I met some luminary folk while in Bogotá Like Jackie … as far as I know she is the only woman in Luciérnagas, well, except your costuming friend (Daniel). I would love to publish a text or reflections on process by her for the 2020 Love Positive Women holiday (Feb 1-14). We will be putting up 14 days of woman-authored content on those days early next year. Can you ask (or work with) Jackie to make a text? Let’s do in Spanish, but also we can translate on our side. If you will agree to interview her for the site, then you can also be a bit instructive w/ your questions. Just make it about the lab process. In that way you both support Love Positive Women.

LUV game feedback from Bogotá + Luciérnagas

Wed, 04 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000

As I detail in Relatory Bogotá, I got to take part in the final piece of Luciérnagas with artist Daniel Santiago Salguero, offering me up-close access to a performance intervention in Bogotá’s Botanical Gardens on a Friday night with thousands of people around enjoying the cool night.

LUV game feedback from Grenoble + Ankh Association

Wed, 04 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000

The first public presentation of Exposition Points de Vie, organized by Ankh Association and dedicated to people living with HIV in Egypt, took place on October 26th in Grenoble, France. The exhibition gave light to their experiences, joys, and difficulties. It involved the interactive game by Luv ‘Til it Hurts, a Falafel party, and Karaoke. The benefits went to حملة اعرف اكثر - Campagne ‘Pour en savoir plus’ - ‘Know more’ campaign .

Nic/Taha:
Hope the event in Colombia went well! I just wanted to send you a short feedback of our event in Grenoble yesterday. It went really well, a lot of people attended and they were all really interested by the project and the discussion was really interesting as well.

LUV game feedback from São Paulo + Somos Mais + AIDS Walk

Wed, 04 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000

About a month before the São Paulo AIDS Walk (now in its 3rd year), which was also on World AIDS Day, December 1, 2019, a group of positive folk and peers began meeting on Tuesday nights for a drink.

The idea of a Sarau came quickly after the name of the motley group, Somos… or Somos Mais. We are visual artists, community organizers, organization makers, filmmaker, bartender, health worker, fashion designer, poets, performers and couple who make a Centro club and art space called Um55. Our first Sarau Transante was on Saturday, November 30th at Um55, the day before World AIDS Day.

Medicine Man

Tue, 03 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000

“Medicine Man.” (40x30 inch), by Issa Nyaphaga.

(Mixed media) paint from 2013 - 2014. Santa Fe, NM - USA.

“HIV-AIDS Stigma Free.”
- Issa Nyaphaga

Photo by Oumar Mebouack

puppy luv + cloth hearts

Tue, 03 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000

So George and I had this idea for an intervention in the São Paulo AIDS Walk, which happens on or around World AIDS Day, December 1 (yesterday). A group of us (somos) made a poetry, film and performance sarau, Somos (Mais) Sarau Transante was on Saturday evening, November 30 to get us in the mood for the intense day of AIDS Day … the acts, walks, talks, performances and such. It’s a lot for one day. It’s a lot to pay attention to all at once. That’s why I like so much the project by artist, Jessica Whitbread called Love Positive Women … it creates another set of days (Feb 1-14) during which positive women are commemorated, interacted with … thought of. This relates to the cloth hearts.

Wrap love in latex - Interview with Juan De La Mar

Mon, 02 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000

TL: Hi Juan,

If memory serves this is a line in your film, De Gris a POSITHIVO … ‘wrap love in latex?’. I think it is when you are walking in the streets of Bogotá (all wrapped in plastic wrap).

Juan, first, I really appreciate your film, and furthermore it was great to have it privately screened at the event at El Parche on October 30th in Bogotá. I also really enjoyed being a part of the Laboratorio Luciérnagas performance and intervention at the Botanical Gardens on October 25th. The whole trip was amazing for me, and reminded me why I’m making the Luv ’til it Hurts project.

Metamorphine Machine Furiosa XXX’s Psyche Pictorial Part IV

Mon, 25 Nov 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Relatory Bogotá

Mon, 25 Nov 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Bodies containing Fireflies that wander through the nocturnal jungle, emitting calls and small sparks of light for courting and to find copulation. They remind us that in the jungle there are no limits or borders. Migrating, as many do out of necessity, or as a virus does from one body into another, is a fluid process. The spectator is invited to use the space to take a break, breathe, and rethink of him/herself as an individual body, and as a gear in a collective body in constant movement. In AIDS and Its Metaphors (1987), Susan Sontag proposes a relationship with illnesses that is not of pity. Instead, she suggests approaching the illness by recognizing it as being a fundamental part of living organisms. Sontag’s intake emphasizes the necessity of confronting the illness with compassion, which implies understanding what happens to the other as if it was happening to yourself. In Survival of the Fireflies (1992), Georges Didi-Huberman proposes these light bugs as being metaphors of resilience, especially during convoluted political moments. These are some reflections that have opened up in the Luciérnagas lab of research and creation.

notes on starfucking (v.1, not to be confused with 'resource fucking')

Fri, 22 Nov 2019 00:00:00 +0000

I do luv this term: starfucking …. star (*) fucking. While it is not used (as such) it is something that is present in the Sontag biography I read. Like people considered whether she liked to know famous people. I was once at a church party with Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams, and to explain it further would be inconsequential. Conditionally, I like to know famous people. I would say. Edmund White’s hand on my leg, but that won’t work for showing pure happenstance. A chance encounter with Kele Okereke on the LES, but I think I was considering straight fucking on that occasion. But my ex showed up and blew the scene. However, when I consider the ‘starfucking’ as I’ve heard it bandied about, I’ve decided its not necessarily a sexual thang. Once at the Tennessee Walking Horse Celebration in Shelbyville (TN), I decided to pass by Zsa Zsa Gabor’s box seat and casually ask her for an autograph. She declined. Queen. It’s ok because I got out of it what I wanted. I wanted to be close to her. I don’t know why a 14 year old gay kid wants that, but I did. In fact she obliged what I really wanted with a lick of rudeness in her curt refusal.

THE MORNING

Thu, 21 Nov 2019 00:00:00 +0000

This sorrowdoes not belong to you it belongs to the air that evaporates              to the light               that shatters               like glass You take to the street with the crossbow tensed against the chiaroscuro of the city               beautifully               wounded Running across the streets until the entire city disappears under your steps               only shadows               left And to the east the sea unattainable the rumour the tide the dark that murmurs               the moon has fallen               into the water Running through the night void of dreams looking for me on empty train platforms               boats               departing You run without finding me there is no one there except one man              one man               every man Walking raining the night settles into his eyes on his back he carries an entire village while in his hands bloom flowers               fish He hides crouching down behind park trees waiting for infinity to open He sleeps surrounded by the echo of birds and sirens his boots covered in star dust And the visible resignation of those who have walked across constellations You run without finding me there is no one there except one man              one man               every man You want to cry with him for the newborns and bid farewell with laughter to the dead You want to remember every stone with your fingers and see the light nesting over the buildings I am sitting right here on the edge of the night contemplating that so other lost in the woods               the brume It so happens that I believe in the clouds in their neatly written pages In the trees that carry a vessel in their womb               sometimes I think               I am a tree I see you running desolated among the men who sleep on the sidewalks like gardens               drinking               dew Exhausted you return home behind each door you open hides a moon The morning is an illegal child innocent who runs seduced by the cold air that lacerates the skin And quietly with the fallen night makes a star While you fall defeated over deserted sheets beside you lies down an adolescent wind just about to beget birds The astral solitude that you inhabit does not belong to you it belongs to me And even if my language is rain and your voice a river that carries the drowned we will trust one another like a child trusts another child               and let go Anyone can grab the dawn but I improvising riding this poem bareback I can set the world on fire and reinvent it with words Under the bed I leave you my heart so that in it you may plough look for treasures bury your dead

Metamorphine Machine Furiosa XXX’s Psyche Pictorial Part III

Mon, 11 Nov 2019 00:00:00 +0000

For all responses, see: MetaMorphineMachineFuriosaXXX

‘People in Trouble’ at Thirty: On Realism, Trump, and the AIDS Cataclysm

Wed, 06 Nov 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Thirty years after its completion, my novel People in Trouble has taken on resonance far beyond my original passions and intention. Its most notorious cultural eruptions: the uncredited derivations of the novel into the musical Rent, and the premonitional nightmare of Donald Trump as a world “leader”–are filled with meaning and have been fodder for speculation. Yet these later manifestations stray far from the originating emotions, influences and open-hearted vulnerabilities that led me to write it in the first place.

Metamorphine Machine Furiosa XXX’s Psyche Pictorial Part II

Fri, 01 Nov 2019 00:00:00 +0000

For all responses, see: MetaMorphineMachineFuriosaXXX

Metamorphine Machine Furiosa XXX's Psyche Pictorial Part I

Tue, 29 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000

For all responses, see: MetaMorphineMachineFuriosaXXX

Relatoría Sesión #6 – Disidencia Sonora

Fri, 25 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Laboratorio Luciérnagas

Relatoría 24 Agosto

sesión #6

disidencia sonora

artista invitado: Mauricio Rivera Henao

lugar: Adorno – Liberia

Relatoría:

Mauricio Rivera es artista sonoro, también trabaja con video e instalaciones. Tiene una pregunta constante por el territorio.

Disidencia = contra hegemónico

Obra: un diálogo con el lago Titicaca

Paisaje sonoro: retratar los paisajes en término sonoros. Volver plástica la materia sonora. Habla de tener conversaciones con insectos o minerales como gesto contra hegemónico ( disidente ).

Relatoría Sesión #7 – Cuerpos Fluidos

Fri, 25 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Laboratorio Luciérnagas
Relatoría 7 septiembre
sesión #7
cuerpos fluidos
artista invitado: Juan Manuel Mosquera
lugar: Jardín Botánico de Bogotá

Taller
Exploración de las posibilidades expresivas del cuerpo a partir de un reconocimiento y una apertura del espacio sensible.

Actividades
Reconocer y explorar las tres llaves del espacio sensible: el peso del cuerpo, sentir y hacer consciente la respiración y permitir la consciencia del cuerpo en su totalidad (sentir su totalidad en el momento presente.
Ejercicios de composición instantánea: sentir y escuchar mi movimiento y el movimiento de los otros cuerpos en el espacio. Esta idea se exploró a través del ejercicio “eje” un trabajo en parejas y grupal al mismo tiempo que busca la escucha y la coordinación permitiendo una composición coreográfica. Ejercicios de contacto: reconocer el movimiento a través del contacto con otro cuerpo, se invitó a los participantes a desarrollar pautas de consciencia y descubrimiento del movimiento a través de entrar en contacto con otro cuerpo, la potencia expresiva del toque, del masaje y del movimiento en contacto a través del espacio.

Eu tive Aids por 2 meses

Thu, 24 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000

_____________________________________

Support Marina Vergueiro’s crowdfunding for the PROJETO EXPOSTA

_____________________________________

Eu tive Aids por dois meses.
Há 7 anos, eu tive Aids por dois meses.
AIDS.
AIDS mesmo.
Olha só.
Não morri.
Eu continuo aqui.
A Aids não.
Ela vazou.
Evaporou de mim
E sumiu.
A Aids é coisa do meu passado,
Desde que me tornei indetectável.
Já o HIV sobreviveu
Assim como eu.
O HIV é um vírus que você não vê…
Pois eu pareço tanto a você!
Não é mesmo?
Eu poderia ser você
E você poderia ser eu
O HIV não escolhe bicha, machão,
santa ou ateu,
tanto faz aonde você se meteu
Ou com quem você meteu.
O HIV é meu E é teu,
É de quem cruzar O caminho,
Seja monogâmica, “fiel”, bolsominion,
Esquerdomacho, idosa, tarado,
Mãe de família, trava, empresário,
O HIV se lixa se você tá no armário!

Relatoría Sesión #5 – Arte & Tecnología

Thu, 24 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Laboratorio Luciérnagas

Relatoría Agosto 10 - 2019

sesión #5

grupo de estudio

Invitada:

Constanza González

Relatoría:

Constanza fue directora de la Lida Colombiana de Lucha contra el Sida hace unos 15 años. Ahora trabaja para la fundación Keralty - Colsánitas en temas relacionados a redes de cuidado en un programa llamado Ciudades compasivas que opera en Bogotá, Ibagué, Manizales, Sta Marta, Cali, Medellín. La metodología es española. Constanza vinoacompañada de Ferney Camacho que trabaja también en el programa Ciudad Compasiva desde hace unos años.

Character Development à la Proust

Tue, 22 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000

[*I totally misunderstood what you wanted me to do with the ‘Proust Questionnaire’ and just answered the original. I get it now … you’re gonna ask me these questions in a new fresh way. Is that it? Go ahead, and we’ll link my new fresh answers here!]

hey ego sum frank (aka Dr. Prof. ego sum frank),

I want to commend you on your new pursuit. While I’ve not yet visited the offices of MetaMorphineMachineFuriosaXXX, I imagine it to be a hybrid pharmacy and yarn shop. I even heard you all make quilts there. But before I would normally digress, let me answer these 35 questions that Proust used to ‘size up’ a character. I would like to assume the character of the difficult artist. I suppose this is somehow the real me; I’ve been called it with great regularity since I began the Luv ’til it Hurts project just over a year ago. I am starting to believe it, and therefore I’m ready to answer this particular MMMFXXX inquest.

LUV is an Endorser of the HIV2020 Conference in Mexico City

Tue, 22 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000

HIV2020: Community Reclaiming the Global Response
Mexico City, July 6-8, 2020
www.hiv2020.org

-–Background—

Human rights conditions in the United States of America (U.S.) have worsened, since the presidential election of Donald Trump. This is especially true for immigrants from Muslim, African, Caribbean and Latin American countries, as well as for people of color, people who use drugs, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, and sex workers. Legal travel restrictions imposed by the U.S. on sex workers and people who use drugs, will make it very difficult for our communities to enter the country.

Relatoría Sesión #4 – Arte / Fronteras

Fri, 11 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Laboratorio Luciérnagas

Relatoría 27 Julio

sesión #4

Arte y fronteras políticas

Invitadas:

Melissa Guevara

Artista

Laura Echeverri

Abogada derechos humanos

Relatoría:

Melisa Guevara es artista Salvadoreña. Habló del libro “Luciérnagas en el Mozote” que contiene narraciones y testimonios sobre la masacre (1981) mas grande que ha sucedió en américa latina, 900 muertos perpetrados por el ejercito.

También nos habla del proyecto 24 Horas de fronteras abiertas, realizado por el colectivo del que hace parte, comprendido por dos colombianos, dos salvadoreños y un salvadoreño en NY. El proyecto se trata de grabar 24 capítulos relacionados cada uno a diferentes perspectivas sobre fronteras y migración, visto desde el punto de vista académico, artístico y de los inmigrantes mismos.

HIV+ in São Paulo

Sun, 06 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000

You’ve all heard about the gay content shows being cancelled or censored all over Brasil. Maybe you heard of the Sexualities show at MASP a couple years back as well. MASP is a big institution. It gets big-named curators. And a lot of attention.

Just now there is a theatre piece on HIV being censored in São Paulo.

I came up with the Queer City (or Cidade Queer) a project within Lanchonete.org as a response to contracting HIV in São Paulo a few years before. I am happy with how Cidade Queer performed as a project. During its span in 2015/16, research would have been done for the forthcoming Sexualities show at MASP. In 2017 we were still making programming with a strong Canadian partner. I had a part-time job with that organization, resulting from a ten-year grant-receiving relationship during which I also served as creative director to some major foundation programs. I deployed a 20-year global cultural network to each program I took on for the Canadian organization. I forgot my HIV meds on one of my many international trips in 2017 working for the foundation. I asked for a ‘cost of living allowance’ /COLA-related increase on my next contract near the end of 2017. It was related to the cost of international travel insurance that would cover medication replacement. I was pouting about this once over dinner with a friend, an HIV+ medical doctor. He responded that he’d lost his medical post the week after he presented ideas on a panel at the Queer City finale, an international ball and awareness-raising day on a range of ‘queer’ issues. In that I understood that I was not alone. I recently got to go to Egypt and on way back met an exiled Egyptian activist living with his partner in Paris. He raised his voice about the government stalling his HIV meds, and he was beaten up one night in his apartment. Other serious danger signals happened: threats. They left to Paris and began advocacy work on the situation in Egypt and Middle East. I spoke to a Mexican artist who moved to Berlin after falling blind due to lack of access to HIV meds. These stories pile up as I survey my peers on their regions and conditions in preparation for Luv ’til it Hurts.

Relatoría Sesión #3 – Arte / VIH

Sun, 06 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Laboratorio Luciérnagas
Relatoría 13 Julio

sesión #3
Arte / VIH

Invitados:
Fernando Arias
José Fernando Serrano
Juan Betancurth

Relatoría:

Fernando habló de su proyecto de residencias Más arte más acción. Dice que para el arte debe accionar. También habló de la importancia de la crítica

En diálogo con José Fernando se tocaron los siguientes temas:

Activismo / Violencia / LGBTI / proceso de paz / activismo LGBTI en Colombia / LGBTI con la paz (ahí se trabajó el tema Venezuela)

Luv Letter, # complicated

Wed, 02 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000

A guy from Mexico contracted HIV. We had condomless sex. I remember this well. Some four years after our hook-up he contacted me because of Luv ’til it Hurts. He wanted to catch up. He wanted to know when I contracted HIV. He needed to dispel an idea that maybe he had carried HIV since the night of our lovemaking. I needed to react with annoyance. I did not. I needed to allow this. Also. It seemed. I had allowed it before in fact. This inquisition into memory and desire and night and sex and lovemaking. It was in a graveyard, a detail I should probably leave out.

Sesión #2 - Memoria Léxica

Wed, 02 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Relatoría Sesión #1 - Contexto del cuerpo en las Artes

Thu, 26 Sep 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Laboratorio Luciérnagas
Relatoría 15 junio

sesión #1
Contexto del cuerpo en las Artes (para artistas y no artistas)

Escuchamos la pieza sonora de John Cage “canción para Marcel Duchamp”.
Hicimos cuadernos de notas para tomar anotaciones.
¿Por qué del laboratorio? Lineamientos.
Cada uno habló de cómo se relaciona con los contenidos del laboratorio

Contexto del cuerpo en las artes:

Body art, Arte Conceptual, Performance, Danza, otros. El cuerpo como material.

Some remarks before I make the video

Tue, 17 Sep 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Hi Deza,

I’ve been thinking about something and I’d like to share it. Perhaps these are thoughts that go into the production of a short video clip. While I don’t pretend to know how to edit such a thing, and barely know how to turn my camera on (something I don’t often do for skypes). I don’t like to give away my ’eye power’ so much.

I wanted to start with something I recently read. In Nicolas Bourriaud’s Relational Art, one of his citations suggest that an artist will often attract attention to her/his/their self in order to then re-direct it somewhere else. Without re-reading or reading into the statement too much, I get it. Given my interest in art history, it is quite easy to think up of various incidences and artists to which this idea pertains.

1st 'About' page: A discussion to be accountable to

Thu, 12 Sep 2019 00:00:00 +0000

A discussion to be accountable to …

Luv ’til it Hurts is about HIV and stigma.

Discussion, campaign, mechanism, agency.

All of these words describe the vision for Luv ‘til it Hurts. Yet, if it becomes nothing more than a discussion to be accountable to, then it has succeeded.

It should have this accountability first and foremost. And, thereby, remember the work (art and otherwise) that came before it.

As a porous container, it aspires to ‘hold’ people together long enough for essential introductions and exchange of ideas.

Think Twice Questions for Luv

Wed, 11 Sep 2019 00:00:00 +0000

My name is Todd Lanier Lester and I started the project, Luv ‘til it Hurts, a two-year project on HIV & stigma. The Think Twice Collective has agreed to join the LUV ‘coalition’ … I’ll explain what that is along the way, but just wanted to say thanks for being in an open-ended conversation with me. The last project I co-made, Lanchonete.org was a five-year investigation of the right to the city in São Paulo, and also took a collective form. I enjoy the pace and other characteristics of collective decision-making. freeDimensional, a 10-year project on free expression and artist shelter was the first of a three-project set that have spanned almost 20 years. What connects the three projects is that they are all durational, rights-focused and open to multiple stakeholders.

The Gathering

Mon, 09 Sep 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Company - S_elf Portrait_
1998, silver gelatin print, 20x16 inches

Introduction

In “A Conversation with Eric Rhein,” an interview on this website, Eric was asked about some writing he’d done: a text which corresponds with many of the themes in his recent exhibition, Lifelines. Eric followed-up with this memoir, written in 1998, and we are happy that he’s shared it with us here.

The Gathering
by Eric Rhein
(1998)

what's the connection between Luv & CHAOS?

Fri, 06 Sep 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Hi Deza,

Luv ’til it Hurts is a two-year project focused on HIV and Stigma. CHAOS is a campaign about mental health. As a person who has a chronic mental health condition as well as HIV, it is easy for me to consider and ‘internalize’ how my mental state and HIV ‘get along’ within me. As an artist who makes public, multi-stakeholder projects, I would like to ’externalize’ a range of topics that pertain to HIV and stigma. I am using my own experience to ask how others contend with the two ‘co-morbidities’ (as the doctors call them) of HIV and depression.

Venezuela, Bogotá

Mon, 02 Sep 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Luciérnagas Laboratorio: Arte | fronteras | VIH proyecto de arte por Daniel Santiago Salguero

Querido Todd. Respondiendo a tus preguntas del último correo te cuento: Efectivamente la crisis Venezolana ha traído una cantidad inmensa de personas de Venezuela a Colombia. Es la migración interna más grande en la historia reciente de Sur América. Se habla de hasta cuatro millones de venezolanos que están ahora en Colombia. Esto ha transformando el territorio cultural. Han llegado a asentarse en todas las ciudades de Colombia, inclusive en las islas del Caribe o en territorios rurales distantes de las ciudades. Muchos vinieron en una primera ola, quizás donde hubo más oportunidades o eran personas con preparación profesional. Ahora no es así, vienen las personas más pobres y en las situaciones más difíciles. Vienen inclusive hasta Bogotá caminando desde Venezuela. Atraviesan páramos y se enfrentan con la actitud xenófoba de muchos colombianos que no toleran su situación. No recuerdan por ejemplo que fueron los colombianos lo que emigraron a Venezuela en nuestra crisis económica y de violencia en los años noventas. Se dice que han regresado más de 300.000 colombianos que vivían en Venezuela. También se dice que la situación acá para los Venezolanos está tan difícil que muchos se están regresando a su país, se dice que se ven personas caminando por las carreteras hacia Colombia y otras ya regresandose a Venezuela. La relación específica y que interesa con respecto al VIH es que en Venezuela ya no hay medicinas para atender el virus. Así que quienes tienen VIH en Venezuela deben salir del país en una situación aún más vulnerable que las de los otros migrantes. Deben además de buscar techo, trabajo, arraigo, buscar su medicina, que es muy costosa y que el gobierno colombiano solo suministra a personas nacidas en el país a través del sistema de salud público. La situación está desbordada por muchos lados. Por ejemplo hasta la semana pasada se dio nacionalidad colombiana a más de 24.000 niños que habían nacido de padres venezolanos en territorio colombiano y que hasta ahora no tenían nacionalidad, ya que los consulados venezolanos están cerrados o no existen mas. Cómo vez, son muchas las aristas y hechos por analizar en medio de la debacle. Se dice que esto traerá muchos cambios sociales, y culturales, como se ha visto que ha sucedido en las grandes migraciones a nivel mundial y local. Ayer oí en la radio, están entrando alrededor de cincuenta mil venezolanos diariamente por la frontera a Colombia. A través del laboratorio estamos desentrañado estas historias, informaciones, estadísticas, subjetividades. Entender y encontrar información nos ayuda a situarnos en el territorio que habitamos. Desde el laboratorio intentaremos dar voz y espacio para reflexionar sobre estas urgentes temáticas.

A Conversation with Artist Eric Rhein

Tue, 06 Aug 2019 00:00:00 +0000

New York based artist Eric Rhein speaks about his two exhibits, Lifelines, which
have been on view in his home state of Kentucky.
Lifelines is an exhibition at two locations in Lexington: at Institute 193 through
July 27 th , and the Lexington’s 21c Museum Hotel, through the end of August.
Todd Lanier Lester, of the Luv ‘til it Hurts campaign, asked Eric about the
shows—and his current and ongoing concerns.

A Discussion between CHAOS + LUV

Tue, 06 Aug 2019 00:00:00 +0000

TL: Hi Deza .. we’ve known each other for over a decade now and met through my beloved Cameroonian network and when I was making freeDimensional. You are based in Paris and FULL STOP, I admire your work. When I met you, you had just placed beautiful portraits on Paris city buses of people that challenge our notions of what it means to be ‘able’…that opened a discussion on ‘ableism’ in Paris and far beyond. Do you have a link to that previous work you can share here?

Thank you to Lois Weaver (ample version)

Tue, 06 Aug 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Conceived by Luv ’til it Hurts participants during a design workshop in Port Said, Egypt, the LUV_GAME is inspired by The Long Table, a performance process by Lois Weaver. The game is designed for art world and non-art world venues … public, private and super private spaces. At the same time it may be available online one day. The game pieces will be downloadable from the LUV site by World AIDS Day, December 1, 2019. Each time the game is presented in a new language, the translated ‘instructions’ will be made available from the site. The game can be played in black and white or in color.

Fault Lines

Wed, 31 Jul 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Luv ’til it Hurts is the third in a series of durational, multi-stakeholder, rights-focused art works: freeDimensional (2003-12), Lanchonete.org (2013-17), and LUV (2018-20). In Why Make an ‘Open Work’? I discuss some of the logic around stakeholder recruitment. Between the first and second, the first and third, and the second and third projects, I have invited cross-over stakeholders. For example, Adham Bakry who is working on ACT I has worked on design outputs for all three projects. There is a practicality in doing so: to learn to work with another artist or designer ‘practices a muscle’ that gets stronger through repetition. If it works, it really works, and can reduce some of the time needed to train production staff on a project that includes a ‘cross-over stakeholder’ and for which they are contributing a similar skillset offered for a past project. Design is an easy example to use here.

Interview With Ankh Association

Sun, 14 Jul 2019 00:00:00 +0000

TL: A mutual friend and queer activist in Cairo was helping me find a place to stay in Paris only a few days before my trip. I somehow end up sleeping on your couch in the suburbs of Paris.

You two make the Ankh Association that supports LGBTQQI and HIV+ folks in the Middle East through an arts advocacy campaign. Can I ask, how you got here? Back in Paris and making Ankh?

Pour La Libération Immédiate de Malak El-Kashif!

Sun, 14 Jul 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Lundi 1er juillet, à l’initiative de l’ Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms (ECRF), ANKH (Arab Network for Knowledge about Human rights), Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS) et avec le soutien d’EuroMed Rights, la Fédération Internationale des ligues des Droits de L’Homme, et la Ligue des Droits de l’Homme, s’est tenue une conférence de presse au siège de la LDH pour réclamer la libération immédiate de l’activiste transsexuelle égyptienne Malak El-Kashif.

Why Make an ‘Open Work’?

Thu, 11 Jul 2019 00:00:00 +0000

I launched Luv ’til it Hurts, a long-considered project on HIV and stigma in July 2018. The project goes through the middle of 2020 officially, and yet I’m also quite interested in the afterlife of projects. DURATION is important to me for reasons I’ll explain later, and based on specific methods drawn from the community organizing field. Luv ’til it Hurts follows a five-year project on the right to the city, site-specific to the center of São Paulo called Lanchonete.org and a ten-year project, freeDimensional on free expression and artist safety (and shelter) in pre-existing artist residencies around the world. Given that an afterlife is expected and having experimented with different forms of archiving (or the project reporting on itself) with both freeDimensional and Lanchonete.org, Luv ’til it Hurts attempts to externalize a ‘record’ of the two-year process in various ways, such as the project’s website as ‘scrapbook’… and even an annual report.

Eric Rhein: Lifelines

Tue, 18 Jun 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Our partner Eric Rhein opens a beautiful exhibition at Institute 193, showing from June 19 - July 24. Don’t miss it!

See: Institute 193’s Facebook event

House of Zion Debut at Luv 'Til It Hurts Launch

Sat, 08 Jun 2019 00:00:00 +0000

[*Before Pony Zion took part in Cidade Queer and Luv ’til it Hurts, I had the opportunity to attend one of his workshops in Lecce, Italy. xot]

In his own words, Pony Zion describes his motivation for sharing his dance performance and choreography on the occasion of Luv ’til it Hurts’ NYC launch:

“This is one of those extremely special moments in time when we get to connect in artistic communication and celebrate one another through the expression within our gifts and on top of important platforms that were built to Lead, Learn and Love. Together, let’s explore our imagination, share our minds and live by our talents by engaging in our Luv ‘TIL it Hurts.”

Luv 'Til It Hurts

Thu, 16 May 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Luv ‘Til It Hurts: the Launch

Mon, 29 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Luv ‘Til It Hurts was formally launched October 27, 2018 at the historic LGBTQ Center in New York City. In keeping with Luv ‘til it Hurts stated mission,

‘’to be a porous container, it aspires to ‘hold’ people together

long enough for essential introductions and exchange ideas’’

for me at the time of this writing, April 2019 it has already been a ravishing success. I launched Every Where Alien [my arts culture and content producing brand and company] in January 2019. My first project is in the form of a narrative documentary and requires travel to São Paulo. I’m thrilled Luv ‘Til It Hurts, found Every Where Alien’s project worthy of support.

Chateau Truvada

Thu, 25 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000

When I was raped, first he bought me cigarettes.
Both of us hilariously drunk, he followed me
into the bathroom, came up behind, then yanked
my pants down and pushed me into the tub.
This was at some rich girl’s apartment downtown.
When we were invited to the same wedding
(years later) and I told the groom why I didn’t want
to see him again, same boy texted me about
“what you think happened that night” because
he never realized what he did, maybe, scarily
easy to believe how obliviousness works.
But I remember: days later, going to the clinic,
telling them I was assaulted, getting tested.
“Oh honey, why didn’t you go to the police?”
Back then I didn’t fuck sober and loathed my body.
In 2012 the FDA approved Truvada as PrEP.
Antiretroviral medicines were used as post-exposure
prophylaxis on an “occupational” basis for nurses
stuck with needles, risked by strange blood. Now
taking pills as prevention was becoming a thing.
I researched the drug and went to Callen-Lorde
where a tidy doctor shot me down, denying the script
because “you’re not a sex worker” and telling me,
“Just try not to hook up with guys when you drink.”
I thought I’d hate him when I seroconverted.
There was an unreasonable terror situated bone- deep that belied comprehension, the magical
thinking convincing me a virus could possibly
render you less worthy of love. What a fucking lie.
I realize that stories about HIV don’t have to be
couched in medical concern or whited moralization.
Nothing othering will gain subsists reputedly,
as a game tide of men turns on the axis of knowing.

We Do Not Tread The Way That Is Conducted By Reason

Mon, 22 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000

We do not tread the way that is conducted by reason!

The white-born reason, from white Greece… So pale and thirsting for blood…

Reason built insane asylums and raised prisons…

It is necessary to be very rational to calculate punishments, as long as productivity does not decline, and faith remains… Yes, even faith becomes inebriated by rationality, to collect awards in the gelid and quiet sky…

Reason divided us between the superior (those gifted by reason) and the inferior (those lacking in reason)… In this hierarchy the one who occupies the top dictates who can live and who must die…

Mandala Art and the Story Behind How I Made It

Thu, 14 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000

By Ayu Oktariani

I was living with HIV for 8 years when I decide to pregnant. It’s been a long journey to make that decision. Waiting for the man who understand each other and want to take responsibility of having a child free from HIV. My husband is HIV Negative, so of course it’s easier for me to planning the pregnancy. I’m very nervous. It’s been 10 years after my first born. We have sex, no condom this time. But before planning to get pregnant, we always used the condom. I feel uncomfortable if we don’t use it, yeah you know… because of the HIV.

HIV/AIDS Testimonial Art Story

Wed, 13 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Joyce McDonald is an artist in many senses of the word. She is, of course, a literal artist: a talented painter and sculptor whose works often capture in stark relief the gamut of emotions she’s experienced throughout her colorful life. Joyce is also a weaver of words: not just as a poet or a songwriter (she is both), but also as speaker for her church’s AIDS ministry and assistant director of its children’s choir. We are celebrating her for Love Positive Women 2019.

Breathing Seeing Life

Tue, 12 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000

My art practice has always been tied into what is happening around me. I am constantly seeing and hearing things that really need to be manifested as visual. In any given day I probably get 30 ideas for pieces.

That’s the easy part but what’s more difficult is trying to decipher if it merits the attention and energy I will would put into it.

I used to kind of flip around from concept to idea to concept, but now I tend to work longer and more intensely with one to three areas at a time. Right now, my focus is on disenfranchised older women, rage, and always, some concept of beauty. Generally this manifests as nature.

Luv Til It Hurts

Mon, 11 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000

I am grateful for community. For me, I find the most healing when I find community with others living with HIV. When I can share and hold space with another survivor (anyone still living with the virus is a survivor). It means the world to meet another person, who is a survivor of all the shame, guilt, and trauma that comes with being HIV positive. Healing happens when you find another person who is willing to trust you, and share that they are HIV positive. I find healing when I can share, hold space, and facilitate a discussion with 3 other young people living with HIV. I find healing when we can talk about our shared struggles, and support one another without any filters, without any judgement, or without any shame or stigma in the room. When I am in this kind of space, I don’t need to explain to anyone what it’s like to be living with HIV. Everyone in the room just gets it already, no explanations necessary. A space that is affirming, and truly free from the feeling of: “sometimes it feels like HIV negative people will never get it.” That is a very rare space to find.

Sex Work-as-art, Sex Worker-as-artist: the art of Dinah de Riquet-Bons.

Sun, 10 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Written by Nic Holas for The HIV Howler: Transmitting Art and Activism

“Build bridges with groups made invisible to society because of fear, phobia, racism, discrimination and stigma. Trans sex workers of colour are the most vulnerable and least consulted. Building bridges means sitting at the table when decisions are made."

Those are the words of Dinah de Riquet-Bons, who this week should need no introduction. Any AIDS 2018 delegate at the Monday night opening ceremony would not be able to forget her opening address, alongside Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation, Sigrid Kaag. So impressive, so moving, was de Riquet-Bons that Kaag implored her to commence a career in politics, telling her “need more women like you.”

Sanandome

Sat, 09 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000

L’Orangelis Thomas Negron
January 31st
San Juan, Puerto Rico

Lo más práctico que aprendí del amor, fue durante el proceso de sanación de la última depresión que sentí después de verano. El proceso de la sanación es, para mi, un ciclo de apoderamiento sobre conciencias, herramientas, narrativas y poderes, que nos mueve de un punto a otro, para recordar sin dolor, más con aprendizaje. En aquel momento varias cosas se entrelazaban; las muy personales, los asuntos políticos y de activismo, la situación por la que cruza el país, y aquellas más espirituales y de transiciones que no siempre una entiende. El proceso de salir de ahí, fue un trabajo arduo, de estar constantemente presente en mi, ser paciente conmigo misma, darme el permiso de sentir lo que tuviese que sentir para moverme de punto “A” a punto “B”, escoger en qué cosas, momentos y personas iba a poner mi energía, entre otras.

More Than Thirty Years

Fri, 08 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000

For more than Thirty years,

The same doors swing open,

While rusty ones slam shut.

I am and have been HIV-positive 11,000 days.

Why is this virus different than a cold virus?

Why do rules bar me from certain pleasures?

What difference did it ever make to most people?

How come the world forgot to set off fireworks

The night I discovered that I was no longer infectious?

No longer able to transmit, this virus?

Arts Empowerment

Thu, 07 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000

By Wanda Hernandez Parks

Chair on the board of Directors of Vocal-NY, cofounder of the Women Empowerment Art Therapy group, with Shirlene Cooper. I have encountered many great organizations, but only one connects art and activism. I became a member of Visual AIDS in 2014, when I attended the Love Positive Women event. I immediately fell in love with Visual AIDS and their mission and I am taking in every opportunity I can to leave a legacy behind.

ON LOVE

Wed, 06 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000

It is nothing new that there is a project of extermination on course, it did not begin yesterday and it will not end tomorrow… a project that aims at profit and that is managed by the market… In which some bodies are more “dieable” than others. The subject with rights is the cis-hetero-white man, and what is left for everything else that does not fit into this, is the enemy’s criminal law. And we are the enemy.

Love Heals

Tue, 05 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Being invited to write as an artist, to be celebrated for the campaign Positive Affirmation Day, felt great. I had a sense of pride, a warmth, a worthiness, feelings that I am learning to cultivate, so sure, I’ll support Love Positive Women, tell me more…

“Luv til it hurts”

“Ummm”

Now I feel unsettled, confused, triggered.

I breathe,

I am a survivor of intimate partner violence,

Olive Edwards and The Jamaican Community of Positive Women: Quilting to EmpowHer

Mon, 04 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Written by Jessica Whitbread for The HIV Howler: Transmitting Art and Activism

In 2012, Olive Edwards supported the Jamaican Community of Positive Women (JCW+) in establishing a quilting club to support women living with HIV to engage in dialogue about their trauma in relation to HIV. In 2016, this arts based method for establishing peer to peer connections was developed into a 2 day workshop to enable for the process to be shared and replicated in three other countries in the Caribbean region (Barbados, Guyana, and Trinidad and Tabago).

Catwalk4power

Sun, 03 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000

The definition of an artist collective is, an initiative that is the result of a group of artists working together to achieve a common objective, this is also the definition of “Catwalk4power”.

That most of the women involved would not describe themselves as artists or link the development of the most “empowering evening ever” to a shared creative process, is exactly why it worked.

Catwalk4power was ignited by the spark “We want to make women visible, how about a fashion show?” and with each contribution, suggestion and inspiration it has grown into a fierce fire and a force for positive engagement. Starting with a focus on what strengths women had, meant existing skills were realised and honed, and leaders allowed to emerge. Everyone involved had a stake in the project, and there wasn’t really a plan, it just grew organically, there was no right or wrong way to do anything, we just did it.

How do you love yourself!

Sat, 02 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Deloris Dockrey

How do you love yourself!

When you are told that you are worthless, no good and lazy.

When you are told that you are fat and useless.

When you begin to internalize people’s opinion of you.

You rise above people’s opinions and you rely on you.

You see the beauty in your life.

You see the joy of your family.

You experience the love of family and you revel in their warmth.

LOVE POSITIVE WOMEN

Fri, 01 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000

LOVE POSITIVE WOMEN (LPW) happens each year between February 1st–14th. It is a global project, conceptualized in 2012 and implemented in 2013, raising awareness about women and girls living with HIV using social media to link local grassroots gestures of love. Using Valentine’s Day as a backdrop, Love Positive Women creates a platform for individuals and communities to engage in public and private acts of love and caring for women living with HIV. Going beyond romantic love to deep community love and social justice, Love Positive Women is call to action. It requires participants to spend time reflecting about how they, as either a woman living with HIV or an ally, will commit to loving women living with HIV. Through action, change can be made. Working from a place of strength, Love Positive Women focuses on the idea of interconnectedness, relationship building, loving oneself and loving one’s community. By starting from a place of love, there are endless ways to build strong communities. While Love Positive Women is active primarily between February 1st–14th, it remains a symbol of how the world can be different throughout the year. Groups in over 45 countries have participated in shifting lives and making a difference through acts of love. LOVE POSITIVE WOMEN is an ongoing project established by Visual AIDS artist member Jessica Whitbread.

$oropositiva

Mon, 28 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Piece: $oropositiva**
Collage on greaseproof paper and serigraphy
30x 40**

Micaela Cyrino, 30, is a visual artist and militant of sexual and reproductive rights, blackness, and HIV / AIDS, in her artistic work and in her participation in groups such as Coletivo Amem. She graduated in Visual Arts from Santa Marcelina University. (São Paulo, Brazil)

Luv 'til it Hurts

Fri, 16 Nov 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Across generations of continents
What do it mean to be haunted?

by a virus. A bluegrass
grandma in Sparta, Tennessee died today;

So did Ntozake Shange.

I wonder is it was they knew each other?
Ntozake and grandma?

the yellow / the red / the Asian pacific islander /
the poor poor white / the black / the trans girl /
the doula / the woman / the social worker / the rich /
the nuyorican / the new yawker /the southern belle /
the global south /Brasil / the brown-black / AMEM
and thank you /the activist / the artivist / the Zion / the poet /
the visual artist / the scholar / the writer / the shunned /
the convener / the loved / the forsaken

AIDS 2018 Journal

Wed, 31 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000

“It is just another coin in the pouch. Sometimes it comes out heads; it’s a blessing. Sometimes it comes out tails; it’s a curse”. — Frederick Weston.

As I have struggled at the many crossroads in my life, I have never thought one day I will embrace such thing that I used to disregard in my everyday life, and even carry it go on a journey for staying alive. To continue my research on HIV/ AIDS, I traveled to the city which is 12 hours different from my motherland, selling myself to explain my story and my project often and often, like the endless stage. There were happiness and disappointment in this unpredictable magical script; sometimes I even feel like I might have already seen it all, but of course, I have not, since I am merely a human being who is trying to find the connection as the lifeline to keep going. It seems like the world did hear my hunger, once again I had the opportunity to visit a new land where I have never been, I flew to Amsterdam for the 2018 International AIDS Conference from the surreal life in New York.

“The Cure for AIDS is Kindness….”

Fri, 26 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000

My community mother, Darien Taylor, was one of the first women living with HIV to do direct action with AIDS ACTION NOW! in Toronto in the late 80s – she’s seen a lot. Darien said that I was a love warrior, and what I advocate for was people being and feeling loved. Which I guess is different than people being accepted because being loved, feeling sexy, being desired, or getting fucked ultimately come with a sense of feeling good and at a deeper level change our quality of life. I had a conversation with a taxi driver in Johannesburg once who asked me if there was a cure for AIDS, I told him yes – kindness. For many people living with HIV and those who are marginalized by ability, age, class, and so on life really sucks sometime and through my projects such as LOVE POSITIVE WOMEN, Tea Time, and No Pants No Problem I aim to change people’s sense of wellbeing at both the micro and macro levels. I believe that role modeling how to be a good friend, lover, family member or service provider has effects that ripple through our communities. People notice. People feel it. I feel it.

Coletivo Amem - São Paulo <> NYC

Fri, 26 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Coletivo Amem is a São Paulo-based artistic collective that promotes festivals, performances and debates focusing on race, class, gender, and public health.

Coletivo Amem ‘occupies’ São Paulo’s Container Theatre during Virada Cultural 2018.

https://youtu.be/B4iXEe_PNFg

For the last two years Coletivo Amem and House of Zion (Brasil) have visited NYC during Black Pride and #HouseLivesMatter.

The House of Zion in Brasil came about during a 2016 visit to São Paulo by New York’s Pony Zion.

Embroidery and curating non-artists

Fri, 26 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000

photo: Cadu Oliveira

My upstairs neighbor, Carué is a medical doctor and AIDS activist. While he doesn’t front as artist, he has a cool project (that occurs to me as artistic) by which he asks for a piece of clothing. He takes it to a local shopping mall, Galeria do Rock where a lot of young people hang out in the center of São Paulo and a specific embroidery shop in the busy arcade. He pays for ‘HIV+’ to be embroidered somewhere prominently on the piece. He then tells you where to pick it up. One need not be HIV+ to receive this gift. Recently I asked him if I could include a photograph of his embroidered work in a museum show that I’m co-curating. For a range of reasons, the curatorial group first used a cropped image of his suit coat without his face, and agreed that I would ask him if he preferred a different image. Carué insisted that we show his face, and so we replaced the ‘suit coat’ with a new image he provided. It was an easy decision to come to, perhaps because we have already acknowledged both the need to personalize (or put a face to HIV) against the subtext of using the face of a white man for this particular theme (and in the Museum of Sexual Diversity’s location in a busy metro station). Since these topics were already ‘on the table’, the curatorial group was able to easily balance the topic of HIV/AIDS with other themes; reconsider the prominence and placement of non-white faces and voices in the small space; and adjust the ratio of women, men, trans (men and women), and non-binary folks participating in the show. As a curator, artist and HIV+ downstairs neighbor, I found it a unique learning experience. And, I also understood why Carué required me to pick up my gift, when the lady at the embroidery shop asked me to repeat more loudly what was embroidered on the piece as she shuffled through past orders in the back of the shop. ‘HIV+’ I said, and tipped my head to the guy behind me in line who was waiting on us to finish the transaction. She found it, holding up a green linen button-up with fluorescent orange embroidery.

IN THE MIDDLE OF THE GREEN:

Fri, 26 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000

PORTRAIT OF AN ORAL HISTORY BETWEEN

KARION LIU & THEODORE (ted) KERR

**A.
**He is an artist and I am a writer. We call each other Kai and Ted. We are both short, cis-gender, gay men. He has black hair. I don’t have hair. We are from different parts of the world. I am from Canada, he is from Taiwan. But we both grew up in complicated families where violence was present and we both like cinnamon raisin bagels topped with vegetables. We are about a decade apart in age, with Kai being born after me.

Letter Report

Fri, 26 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Hi all this is a report that the musician that worked with me producing and thinking the music of my last completed worked named “Fantasia casi soneto después de una lectura de dan(c)e” sent me after going to ArteBA Focus (version of the big art fair in Buenos Aires done by the same people):

Hi, Dudu, how’s it going?

I was on ArteBA Focus for a while, all right. I give you a brief report: The work was in a plasma TV of acceptable size, but had no headphones, and the environment was too noisy to be heard well with the speakers of the device. Also, when I went, the video had a jump, a line of slight horizontal digital noise, which appeared cyclically and affected everything, video and audio. Still, it could be said that, given the context, the work was “intelligible”, and in fact, I saw several people stop to look at it for a while. Very good photos of you too, I liked them.

Statement on Humans As Hosts and the artwork of Kairon Liu

Fri, 26 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Our DNA, the map of our genetic information (our growth, development, functioning, and reproduction), is 99.9% the same for each and every one of the 7+ billion people living on Earth. That said, while we share common genetic bonds, our social, cultural, and emotional experiences are unique. This duality is significantly addressed by two of the foremost figures in developmental psychology: Jean Piaget (1896-1980) and Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934). The research of Piaget and Vygotsky signified that it is a combination of ‘Nature’ and ‘Nurture,’ that accounts for a person’s development. In other words, while we all have the natural ability to learn and develop, how we perceive the world largely depends on our experience and education.

A discussion to be accountable to …

Mon, 01 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000

A discussion to be accountable to …

_New generations of HIV/AIDS strategies
_6-8:30pm, Saturday, Oct. 27th

See video of the House of Zion debut performance that preceded the panel discussion.

Free and Open to the public

The Center
208 W 13 St
New York, NY 10011
212.620.7310

A discussion to be accountable to … is a part of Reimagine End of Life in NYC, a week of exploring big questions about life and death. The story goes that two artist projects focused on HIV—Humans as Hosts & Luv ‘til it Hurts—‘met’ in NYC, and Reimagine End of Life festival is the context for an intimate chat and hanging out with friends. Making new ones. Seeing a new piece by Pony Zion. It looks like a panel, but it’s more like a ‘discussion’… on stigma and HIV in different parts of the world. New networks. New strategies. Right now.

Luv Till It Hurts by Kairon Liu

Mon, 01 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Opening Reception: Thursday, October 18 from 6-8pm
Exhibition dates: October 18-28, 2018
Gallery Hours: Wednesday through Sunday, 12-6pm

El Museo de Los Sures
120 South 1st Street, Brooklyn, NY 11249
(Between Bedford Avenue and Berry Street)

Curatorial Advisor: Adam Zucker, Theodore (Ted) Kerr

Organized by Luv ’til it hurts, and collaborating with more than 150 others to co-create Reimagine End of Life 2018.

Today, medical treatments help people infected with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) have prolonged and ordinary lives, as well as prevent further transmission, but they can never kill the virus hiding within. Despite these advances, moral condemnation and discrimination against the disease continue. The consequences of this stigma are mental illness and distress, often generating greater suffering than the physiological disease itself. Until a true cure is found, shame, insecurity, and trauma will continue to afflict those diagnosed with HIV until our societies and communities change the ways in which we consider and support them.