AIDS Is Everyday / Intro

Detail from Barton Lidicé Beneš, Untitled (from the series Dick + Jane)

January 6, 2017

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AIDS is an everyday experience. The dates on this calendar all relate to the AIDS crisis. Some are globally known; others are drawn from personal experiences.

This online calendar is produced in partnership with Visual AIDS and is an extension of the exhibition “EVERYDAY,” which was curated by Jean Carlomusto, Alexandra Juhasz and Hugh Ryan in 2016. The exhibition and accompanying print calendar explored the AIDS crisis—historically and currently—through the lens of art and ephemera that examines and evidences daily experiences and practices in response to HIV/AIDS. Artists featured in the “EVERYDAY” exhibition were invited to submit as many dates to the calendar as they desired.

We invite you to reflect upon these dates, and this artwork, in dialogue with one another. We also encourage you to submit dates of your own by clicking here. Submissions may include the date of your diagnosis, the date of the loss of a loved one to AIDS-related illness or a significant milestone in your life with HIV/AIDS.

New submissions will be continually added to the calendar because AIDS is not over.

Click on the links below to see the dates and artwork for each month:

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

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Detail from Barton Lidicé
Beneš, Untitled (from the
series Dick + Jane)

About the Artwork

“On a personal level, my reliquaries are a way of documenting the lives of my friends. Because of AIDS, there is a strong element of remembrance in my work. We all have things that only we know are relics. A slip of paper with a lover’s phone number, the ticket to a movie we’ve kept for years, or a handkerchief with a scent of perfume. Left to history, these objects fall by the wayside…Without the stories, these objects mean nothing, but when they are mounted they become special.”

—Barton Lidicé Beneš

Founded in 1988, Visual AIDS is the only contemporary arts organization fully committed to raising AIDS awareness and creating dialogue around HIV issues today, by producing and presenting visual art projects, exhibitions, public forums and publications—while assisting artists living with HIV/AIDS. Visual AIDS is committed to preserving and honoring the work of artists with HIV/AIDS and the artistic contributions of the AIDS movement.


Read more articles from POZ, here.