Admission to this event is FREE, but you need a ticket, which you can get here. Capacity is limited. Note: For this in-person event, we ask that attendees wear a face mask to protect themselves and other members of the audience. Masks will also be made available on-site.

Vtape is proud to partner with Visual AIDS for Day With(out) Art 2022 by presenting Being & Belonging, a program of seven short videos highlighting under-told stories of HIV and AIDS from the perspective of artists living with HIV across the world. We also feature two new works by Toronto-based artists TJ Cuthand and Sarah Flicker.

The program features newly commissioned work by Camila Arce (Argentina), Davina “Dee” Conner and Karin Hayes (USA), Jaewon Kim (South Korea), Clifford Prince King (USA), Santiago Lemus and Camilo Acosta Huntertexas (Colombia), Mikiki (Canada), and Jhoel Zempoalteca and La Jerry (México).

From navigating sex and intimacy to confronting stigma and isolation, Being & Belonging centres the emotional realities of living with HIV today. How does living with HIV shift the ways that a person experiences, asks for, or provides love, support, and belonging? The seven videos are a call for belonging from those that have been stigmatized within their communities or left out of mainstream HIV/AIDS narratives.

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.

Camila Arce, Memoria Vertical
Camila Arce presents a poem about the experience of being born with HIV and growing up as part of the first generation with access to antiretroviral medication in South America.

Davina “Dee” Conner & Karin Hayes
Here We Are: Voices of Black Women Who Live with HIV
Davina “Dee” Conner was diagnosed with HIV in 1997. For 18 years she knew no one else who lived with HIV. As she emerged from isolation and internalized stigma, Davina sought to understand the journeys of other Black women living with HIV. Here they are. Listen to their voices.

Jaewon Kim, Nuance
Through an unfolding collection of images, Nuance reflects the thoughts and feelings exchanged between the artist, who is living with HIV, and his HIV-negative partner.

Clifford Prince King, Kiss of Life
In Kiss of Life, several Black people describe their experiences living with HIV. Raw conversations surrounding disclosure, rejection and self love are expressed through visual poetry and dreamscapes.

Santiago Lemus & Camilo Acosta Huntertexas, Los Amarillos
In Colombia, many people living with HIV experience jaundice–the yellowing of the eyes and skin–as a side effect of the low cost antiretroviral drugs supplied by the government. Los Amarillos addresses the alienation and hypervisibility faced as a result of this side effect.

Mikiki, Red Flags, a Love Letter
Through a cacophony of limbs, members, and sounds drawn from the party and play scene, Mikiki speaks with other drug users about the possibilities of representing the pleasure of substance use beyond the framework of harm.

Jhoel Zempoalteca & La Jerry, Lxs dxs bichudas
Lxs dxs bichudas offers a poetic dance dialogue in Zapotec and Spanish that explores the ways in which race, gender, and geography shapes the lives and bodies of people living with HIV in Mexico, a country marked by the ideological project of mestizaje.

followed by:

Sarah Flicker, Living Through the Triple Pandemics (Canada, 2022)
In the winter of 2022, nine Black women impacted by the triple pandemics of HIV, COVID-19 and anti-Black racism gathered virtually to creatively share their experiences of survival, grief, loss, resistance and care.

TJ Cuthand, work in progress (Canada, 2022)
A work in progress by TJ Cuthand, based on his research residency for the Vtape & Archive / Counter-Archive case study “AIDS Activist Media: Toronto Living with AIDS & Second Decade.”

Co-Presented with Vtape, Visual AIDS, AIDS Action Now!, Viral Interventions, and Archive/Counter-Archive.