Still Beginning: The 30th Annual Day With(out) Art

Please note: this program is not appropriate for all viewers: it contains graphic sexual content.

In recognition of the 30th annual Day With(out) Art, the Chazen will screen STILL BEGINNING, organized by Visual AIDS. The program of seven newly commissioned videos by Shanti Avirgan, Nguyen Tan Hoang, Carl George, Viva Ruiz, Iman Shervington, Jack Waters/Victor F.M. Torres, and Derrick Woods-Morrow responds to the ongoing HIV/AIDS epidemic.

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.

About Visual AIDS
The New York-based nonprofit 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. —Visual AIDS

*The phrase first appeared in Bordowitz’s installation Drive(2002) and was recently displayed as a banner at the Art Institute of Chicago.