From 1 to 7 December 2023

MACBA is proud to partner with Visual AIDS for Day With(out) Art 2023 by presenting Everyone I Know Is Sick, a programme of five videos that draw connections between HIV and other forms of disease and disability.

The programme features newly commissioned work by Dorothy Cheung (Hong Kong), Hiura Fernandes & Lili Nascimento (Brazil), Beau Gomez (Canada/Philippines), Dolissa Medina & Ananias P. Soria (USA), and Kurt Weston (USA).

Inspired by a statement from Cyrée Jarelle Johnson in the book Black Futures, Everyone I Know Is Sick examines how our society upholds a false dichotomy of health and sickness that marginalises disabled and sick people. Inviting us to understand disability as a common experience rather than an exception to the norm, the programme highlights a range of experiences spanning HIV, COVID, mental health, and aging. The commissioned artists foreground the knowledge and expertise of disabled and sick people in a world still grappling with multiple ongoing pandemics.

Visual AIDS is a New York-based non-profit that uses art to fight AIDS by provoking dialogue, supporting HIV+ artists and preserving a legacy, because AIDS is not over.

Image of a painted female face

Programme

Dorothy Cheung, Heart Murmurs

Heart Murmurs is a poetic dialogue between the filmmaker Dorothy Cheung and Dean, a young man living in Hong Kong. In reflecting on his experience of living with a congenital disability and HIV during the first years of the COVID pandemic, Dean expresses his sense of self in the face of regular medical challenges.

Hiura Fernandes and Lili Nascimento, Aquela criança com AID$ (That Child with AID$)

That Child with AID$ tells the story of Brazilian advocate and artist Lili Nascimento, who was born with HIV in 1990. Lili has worked to expand narratives about living with HIV beyond the limited images and ideologies that permeate the industries surrounding HIV and AIDS.

Beau Gomez, This Bed I Made

This Bed I Made presents the bed as a place of solace and agency, as opposed to a mere site of illness or isolation. Through the shared stories of two Filipino men living with HIV, the video explores forms of care, restoration and abundance in the midst of pandemic devastation.

Dolissa Medina and Ananias P. Soria, Viejito/Enfermito/Grito (Old Man/Sick Man/Shout)

Ananias, a San Francisco Bay Area artist and immigrant, performs the folkloric Danza de los Viejitos (the Dance of the Old Men). Originally from Michoacán, Mexico, where the dance originates, Ananias interprets its movements through the lens of his spirituality, his long-term HIV-related disabilities, and his search for a place in the world.

Kurt Weston, Losing the Light

Losing the Light reflects the artist’s bitter fight to stay in this world as a long-term survivor of AIDS who has lost his vision to CMV retinitis. An experimental self-portrait, the video evokes the dissolution and fragmentation of the artist's body, representing the impact of blindness, long-term HIV infection, and the cumulative effects of decades of antiretroviral medication.

The videos will be screened online free of charge for a week on the MACBA website. If you have any question, feel free to contact us on 93 481 33 68 or by email at macba [at] macba [dot] cat