Queens Museum is proud to partner with Visual AIDS for the thirtieth annual Day With(out) Art by presenting STILL BEGINNING, a program of seven newly commissioned videos responding to the ongoing HIV/AIDS epidemic by Shanti Avirgan, Nguyen Tan Hoang, Carl George, Viva Ruiz, Iman Shervington, Jack Waters/Victor F.M. Torres, and Derrick Woods-Morrow.

The seven short videos range in subject from anti-stigma work in New Orleans to public sex culture in Chicago, highlighting pioneering AIDS activism and staging intergenerational conversations. Recalling Gregg Bordowitz’s reminder that “THE AIDS CRISIS IS STILL BEGINNING,”* the video program resists narratives of resolution or conclusion, considering the continued urgency of HIV/AIDS in the contemporary moment while revisiting resonant cultural histories from the past three decades. 

At Queens Museum (QM), the one-hour video program will be screened in a looping presentation from 3-5pm in the QM Theater and special tours of Nicolas Moufarrege: Recognize My Sign will take place in the galleries at 3pm in Spanish and at 4pm in English.

STILL BEGINNING at Queens Museum is presented as part of a partnership between QM and Visual AIDS on the occasion of the exhibition Nicolas Moufarrege: Recognize My Sign. Programs and projects generated from this partnership illuminate the connection between Moufarrege’s life, work, and the AIDS crisis, while also sharing contemporary information about HIV during the exhibition’s run. With What Would An HIV Doula Do? (WWHIVDD) and Visual AIDS, a resource guide titled Recognizing the Present: A Guide to HIV in the 21st Century was produced to provide accessible information about the ongoing epidemic and share Queens-based AIDS resources. English and Spanish versions are available in the Queens Museum’s lobby and digitally as a PDF. Two gallery talks are also presented as part of this partnership, including a conversation that took place October 27th with Yasmin Ramirez, Elaine Reichek, and James Romberger and a closing talk forthcoming on February 15th with artist Nick Mauss.

Visual AIDS is a New York-based non-profit that utilizes art to fight AIDS by provoking dialogue, supporting HIV+ artists, and preserving a legacy, because AIDS is not over. In 1989, Visual AIDS organized the first Day Without Art, a call to the art world for mourning and action in response to the AIDS crisis. For Day With(out) Art’s thirtieth year, over 100 institutions worldwide will screen STILL BEGINNING, recognizing the important and necessary work of artists, activists, and cultural workers who have responded to AIDS while emphasizing the persistent presence of the epidemic. 

Proyecciones de Día Sin Arte presentadas por Visual AIDS, 1 de dic, 3–5 pm

Visual AIDS conmemora el trigésimo aniversario de Día sin Arte con el encargo de siete nuevos vídeos. Visual AIDS organizó el primer Día sin Arte en 1989 como un llamado al mundo artístico para hacer duelo y tomar acción en respuesta a la crisis del sida. En conjunto con la exposición del Museo, Reconozcan mi señal, este evento también conmemora al artista Nicolas Moufarrege, que murió de una enfermedad relacionada con el sida en 1985.

*Gregg Bordowitz, The AIDS Crisis is Still Beginning (2019) was recently on view at the Art Institute of Chicago. Hear Bordowitz discuss the work here.

Image: Jack Waters/Victor F.M. Torres, (eye, virus), 2019. Commissioned for Visual AIDS’ Day With(out) Art 2019. Still courtesy of the artists