The start of the new millennium sees the AIDS pandemic enter its third decade. Yet despite millions being spent on research over the decades, scientists are still nowhere near finding a cure.
Shockingly, during 2005 alone, an estimated 2.8 million persons died from AIDS, 4.1 million were newly infected with HIV, and 38.6 million were living with HIV. Tragically, the number of new infections continues to rise. And while the situation has improved for many people with HIV/AIDS in the developed world, the same cannot be said for their similarly afflicted counterparts in sub-Saharan Africa, India, China, and Russia, where ignorance and misinformation about the disease are common and drugs that might help are not.
In the face of government apathy, ignorance and neglect, much of the work of keeping AIDS alive as an issue and raising awareness for its sufferers has fallen to the global arts community.
Contemporary artists wanting to tackle subject face a fresh set of challenges, where the time-honored axiom that every community has its own AIDS epidemic remains entirely apt, and were charity dollars and media attention are in short supply.
At the recent XVI International AIDS Conference, the biannual global AIDS conference, the arts quite literally occupied a prominent place in proceedings.
Marking the opening of the conference at the Institute for Contemporary Culture at the Royal Ontario Museum was the re-unveiling, if you will, of AIDS, a word-based sculpture created by renowned Canadian art trio General Idea in 1987.
A powerful example of early AIDS related art, the decision to reintroduce this now iconic work stood as a testament to the power that the arts have had in raising awareness of aids since it first appeared. It was forged at a time when AIDS was rarely discussed in the national media or by political officials, forcing many gay activists to voice their anger and sorrow through their art.
In fact, some of the most powerful and influential works of AIDS related art were born in the early days of the epidemic, such as the controversial Gran Furey creation All People With AIDS Are Innocent, the now iconic Silence Equals Death project and the legendary AIDS memorial quilt.
While these traditional works have since been embraced by the institutional art world, today’s artists are taking the fight against AIDS and the need for greater public awareness to new levels of creativity and ingenuity – one that sees their artistic responses to the disease moving more frequently beyond the confines of a gallery, and closer to those affected most.
Late last year in Mozambique, a unique collaboration between an orphanage and one of Africa’s most celebrated arts companies, the National Song and Dance Company of Mozambique, clearly demonstrated how HIV/AIDS messages can be communicated through performance, while simultaneously highlighting the transforming power of art.
Working with a group of 8 to 16 year olds from the Arco Iris orphanage, the world renowned troupe worked choreographed and produce a 45-minute musical to commemorate World AIDS Day.
Since then, the model created has been adopted by many other arts organizations in the country as both a tool to raise aids awareness and a means of encourage community awareness in directly challenging the often devastating stigma attached to having the disease.
David Abilio Mondlane, the director of the troupe, said at the time: “We try to use art as a tool to pass along messages…and we realised that maybe we can have a greater impact if we give a voice to the community itself.”
In India recently, a group of the countries most popular musicians and films stars joined forces to create a music video and album entitled Haath Se Haath Milaa, geared solely towards educating impressionable teenagers about the realities and dangers of the AIDS virus.
Anu Malhotra, the key figure behind the project, said the idea was to create “a song and video that would make it cool and fashionable to talk about HIV/AIDS, as it is only through frank and open discussion that we can raise awareness”.
Taking a more sobering approach is an exhibition entitled Bodymaps, in which a number of African women afflicted with the AIDS virus were asked to draw maps of their bodies as they related it to the effect that AIDS has had on their lives. The exhibit has done an equal job of getting people talking, generating enormous interest in its travels across the globe.
Jane Saks, Executive Director of the American Columbia College and a long time believer in the potential of art as a transformative power in society, says Bodymaps brings up “issues of sexuality, poverty, class, geographic location and gender,” but also “requires each and every single viewer to respond, take responsibility, and act in a meaningful and deep way” to the realities of the epidemic.
Feisal Abdul Rahman, Chairman of Action For Aids in Singapore, which holds an annual Art Against Aids competition aimed at raising awareness of the disease through outreach programs and educational events, stood in solidarity with Saks.
“Art can be a potent instrument that can help prevent the further spread of the devastating HIV virus in our society,” he said. “Art can sensitise our community to the issues surrounding HIV and AIDS…indeed, art can become a powerful force that empowers and galvanises our community to take action in the face of devastation, death and dismay.”
