Still Beginning: The 30th Annual Day With(out) Art
- to This is a past program
The Hammer Museum is proud to partner with Visual AIDS for the thirtieth annual Day With(out) Art by presenting STILL BEGINNING, a program of seven newly commissioned videos responding to the ongoing HIV/AIDS epidemic by Shanti Avirgan, Nguyen Tan Hoang, Carl George, Viva Ruiz, Iman Shervington, Jack Waters/Victor F.M. Torres, and Derrick Woods-Morrow.
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.
The works will be shown on a loop on the Billy Wilder Theater lobby monitor.
Visual AIDS is a New York-based non-profit that 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
*The phrase first appeared in Bordowitz’s installation Drive (2002) and was recently displayed as a banner at the Art Institute of Chicago.
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![A man in a suit and tie stands before a camera in a crowd]()
Shanti Avirgan, Beat Goes On, 2019.Commissioned for Visual AIDS’ Day With(out) Art 2019. Still courtesy of the artist -
![Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh winks at the camera]()
Carl George, The Lie, 2019.Commissioned for Visual AIDS’ Day With(out) Art 2019. Still courtesy of the artist -
![A man with glasses looks directly into a camera]()
Nguyen Tan Hoang, I Remember Dancing, 2019Commissioned for Visual AIDS’ Day With(out) Art 2019. Still courtesy of the artist -
![A close-up of a woman's eyes and nose]()
Viva Ruiz, Chloe Dzubilo: There is a Transolution, 2019Commissioned for Visual AIDS’ Day With(out) Art 2019. Still courtesy of the artist -
![A woman in profile looks at a computer screen]()
Iman Shervington, I'm Still Me, 2019Commissioned for Visual AIDS’ Day With(out) Art 2019. Still courtesy of the artist -
![A symbol of an eye and a circle with eight legs]()
Jack Waters/Victor F.M. Torres, (eye, virus), 2019Commissioned for Visual AIDS’ Day With(out) Art 2019. Still courtesy of the artist -
![A blue board covered in photographs]()
Derrick Woods-Morrow, Much handled things are always soft, 2019Commissioned for Visual AIDS’ Day With(out) Art 2019. Production still by Patric McCoy
All Hammer public programs are free and made possible by a major gift from an anonymous donor.
Generous support is also provided by Susan Bay Nimoy and Leonard Nimoy, Good Works Foundation and Laura Donnelley, The Samuel Goldwyn Foundation, an anonymous donor, and all Hammer members.
Public programs advancing social justice are presented by the Ford Foundation.
Digital presentation of Hammer public programs is made possible by the Billy and Audrey L. Wilder Foundation.
