1. Aux temps du sida, MAMCS, Strasbourg, © Max Hart Nibbrig
AIDS - Narratives and stories
Until the month of February 2024, the exhibition of the MAMCS, the museum of modern and contemporary art of the town of Strasbourg present an exhibition around the Human Immunodeficiency Virus epidemic (HIV) and AIDS.
While the virus was discovered in the early 1980s, the Human Immunodeficiency Virus epidemic (HIV) and AIDS were discovered during its terminal stage in the United States and France before spreading worldwide.
While the virus was decimating a generation of creators, male and female, writers, choreographers, film makers and visual artists, the diseases, either explicitly or implicitly, became part of their works. It also helped to emerge a greater tolerance, visibility and recognition of minority rights, struggles in which their work played a major part.
The exhibition “In the Days of AIDS” speaks of a time that is still with us and in which, despite great medical advances, the epidemic has not yet been overcome…
The battle of our time
2. Aux temps du sida au musée d'Art moderne et
contemporain de Strasbourg. / © M.Bertola-Musées de Strasbourg
AIDS and HIV is still a battle today, thus the ten distinctive sections of the exhibition present visual creations around a small but interlocking room. During the visit, the visitors will encounter a variety of works, ranging from paintings, photographies, and immersive audio installation, inviting the visitors to activate works of arts.
The first section of the exhibition is named the "Corridor of Time". In 1984, a group of artists named Group Material, which included Felix González- Torres, Jenny Holzer and Barbara Kruger, designed what they called an Aids Timeline. They gave a narrative of the exhibition with numerous political, medical and media output, thus this first part of the show is an hommage and a memorial of what's happened during the last decades, with numerous texts, newspapers, objects, artistic creations, etc.
An important point of view in the corridor is that those informations are not just given by professionals, but rather by people who already have this disease or artist who fight it. It also shows some medical improvement such as the invention of PrEP, medicines, novels, a homage to Françoise Barré-Sinoussi (the scientist who co-discovers the disease), popular culture, etc.
At the end of this corridor, you are welcome in a small "Antechamber", where you can see the works of three artists, each with its own trait: bodies, a face, words. The first one being a Kiki Smith's photographs of a fragmented body, another work of John Hanning presenting a boy with a radian face and lastly a tapestry of Bruno Pélassy representing the use of words in this fight thought AIDS.
The following rooms presents works in thematic room, the first one being “I'm Going out this Evening”, thus paying an hommage to Guillaume Dustan's novel "Je sors ce soir". Thus, this section takes up the theme of the night, the night to have fun, take risks, and get "carried away" by the nocturnal ambivalence produced by artists such as Ed Paschke's faces/masks and Zoe Leonard's photos of sexual graffiti.
This room also presents texts and photographs of Dustan's witticisms ("Queer = weird; Queer = everybody" or "I dance therefore I am") in dialogue with photography of Luc Chery's Nocturnal Suites.
To go further, the visitor is invited into a Dance Box alternately hosting a dance floor and an opera platform. This room wraps visitors in sound and light, at a point where the visitors ask themselves: is the figure in the Dance Box real or is it a mannequin? Am I in a museum/exhibition?
Like a strange nightclub, you can find a back room which brings works by Jean-Michel Othoniel, such as "Beautiful Closet", which present works linked to inhibition or furtiveness. The closet is also an important personification for Queer people, because when they step out of it then have two decisions: to change who they are and not tell anyone about their sexuality, or to "Come out", thus accepting their sexuality or their HIV status.
Just after the discovery of AIDS, one question remained, the saturation. The saturation of this disease into the body, which in a “microscopic” level destroyed our body cells and viral, microbial, or other opportunistic infections. But also, on a “macroscopic” level, when people had to educate the population about the virus and how does it spread, because it don't "choose" queer citizens, but actually everyone.
The next section of the show focus on this situation, and how people got exposed from HIV/AIDS. One of the first subject and contamination was fantasies where the disease was thought to be transmitted by saliva, tears, sweat, simple contact, etc.
3. Aux temps du sida au musée d'Art moderne et
contemporain de Strasbourg. / © M.Bertola-Musées de Strasbourg
Thus, blood and semen are part of the intimate part of the body, thus it's quite difficult to talk about prevention without naming or showing what we are talking about. Thus, artist decided to spot the light on the subject, such as the works of Andres Serrano, who makes blood his main subject. In his large-scale photography, he presents blood stream, almost abstract in shape, it loses its organic character to become visual artwork.
Opposite to this series of works, we see a massive fresco recently completed by Fabrice Hyber, which is centred on the rhizomic nature of the epidemic.
The following room is presenting works, films, photographs, paitings and audio description produce during the first two decades following the discovery of the virus. With works such as, Marlene Dumas and it's work series "The Image as Burden", which present a small painting depicting one figure carrying another.
But the title has a deeper meaning, the sense of responsibility faced by the artist in choosing to create an image that can translate ideas about painting and the position of the artist.
Another important group of works present which tell stories such as Sophie Calle, Hervé Guibert, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster designs a bedroom for Felix González-Torres, David Wojnarowicz, Peter Hujar's photographs and Nan Goldin.
The last three sections of the exhibition present the areas of expression for virus-related narratives or messages, with spoken word or gesture. Because today, the word "AIDS" and the notion of "HIV" is in the shadow of a virus, a virus which actually has a story, deeply linked to a generation, but also our generation (even tho it's more rare today). Thus, three important works are presenting this subject in the 9th and 10th room.
The 9th room present two important works, one being a photograph of Wolfgang Tillmans which present a composition where you see a cardboard box filled with a 17 years supply of his treatment for HIV, called PrEP. While the artist was only homosexual, his also actively open to political debate around his sexuality and the link between political decision, health and HIV/AIDS.
4. Aux temps du sida au musée d'Art moderne et
contemporain de Strasbourg. / © M.Bertola-Musées de Strasbourg
Another important work is an imposing sculpture of three placebo pills, made out of shades of blue and green. Created by the artistic group General Idea in 1991, the three cast-fiberglass "megapills" showcase the original AIDS logos with red-green-blue color scheme and they are titled Red (Cadmium) PLA©EBO, Green (permanent) PLA©EBO and Blue (Cobalt) PLAC©EBO. The three of them are on human scale and they present the act of swallowing a placebos pill, that in fact do not contain an active ingredient—"candy-coated sugar pills [that] fake your body into feeling better while leaving it defenseless.". But the group define this pill as a surrogate for art, functionless and soothing.
The last work presents a work by the artist Felix González-Torres. To properly experience the work, the visitors are invited to put on headphones and dance beneath a garland of light bulbs to the sound of music that only they can hear.
5. Aux temps du sida au musée d'Art moderne et
contemporain de Strasbourg. / © M.Bertola-Musées de Strasbourg
The end of the exhibition finish with a “breathing space", presented at the end of the hallway of the museum. This place is made fro meet people, doctors and numerous specialist of this virus and, if needed, can help to discuss with someone who already contracted the virus. Thus sharing its experience and trying to stabilise the debate mourned HIV, especially in the queer community.
Informations about the exhibition
Place: Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Strasbourg (MAMCS)
Date: 6.10.2023 – 4.2.2024
Curators: Estelle Pietrzyk, Thierry Laps, Anna Millers, Coralie Pissis & Alexandre Zebdi-Libot
Ticket: Available at the front desk of the museum
Informations about the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Strasbourg (MAMCS)
Musée d'Art moderne et contemporain de Strasbourg
1, place Hans-Jean Arp
67000 Strasbourg
Phone: +33 (0)3 68 98 50 00