aids, archives, and art, assemblies in Belgium

I joined the Aids Archives and Arts Assemblies in Belgium project early in 2023. It is a two year research project aimed at devising processes to carry out projects on aids, archives, and arts made by and for people concerned with HIV and aids. 

As a co-director of the project I was involved in the creation of a series of objects pictured on this page and the development of research questions, conversations, collaborations, and intimate as well as public events.

Without going into too much detail here you will find images of the few objects that were made for this project such as The Blanket, which was inspired by the Aids Quilt and The Sofa which was conceived in community through various processes including discussions, research, and hand sewing. 

These and our project’s approach were directly inspired by the collective What Would an HIV Doula Do? and their work, specifically that in response to the 40 year anniversary of the AIDS epidemic outbreak in NY AIDS IS / AIDS AIN’T 40. We believe that the narratives which exist in cultural and artistic institutions can be challenged with multiple realities that are currently either hidden and not talked about much. We speak of medical access, precarity, homelessness, and many other realities that people living with HIV face in the 2020s. 

Since our project has the word archive in the name, we are often asked if we are creating or keeping an archive. The answer is, no. However there are nuances to understand the complexity by which we came to this simple answer. THroughout our research and community building events, we understood that there is a need to challenge the unilateral stories that classic archives tell. We like to use unarchives and living archives as examples of what our project aims to produce. By using the assembly as our main piece of art, we create events that will enable a project to continue living through the experiences that exist within and among the project and its participants. Below are some links to more information about this project through our events, some pictures, some stories as blog posts, and clips of sometimes recorded conversations.

Whose Aids? at Kaaistudios December 2023 a two part public event 

• Insistence and Consistency: Lesbians and aids is a double bill of performances by Fefa Vila and Talya.
• We Need to Talk is a discussion on aids and resting between Emmanuel Cortés, nixie, and Raphaël Kalengayi Junior in conversation with a small audience. Listen to a recording of this part of the night on the radio panic website with a French introduction by Raoul Rul.

The open call for the July 2024 assembly at BUDA Kunstencentruum an intimate assembly

• Presence was reserved to transfagbidyke-queer people and cis straight women. Most spots are reserved in priority for HIV+ people. Attending some of the intersections of struggles around HIV & aids, additional spots were reserved in priority for BIPOC, trans people, and lesbians.
• A BLOG post about the assembly: How Is This Remembered

What Isn't Governable September 2024 at Viernulvier a semi public event

• A celebration of dissolutions, the ends of projects and grief
• a reading of a poem dedicated to Melvin Dixon by Philadelphia poet aAliy A. Muhammad and a concert by Brussels musician nino_uncut performing a song dedicated to our project.
• A BLOG post about the napkins made for the lunch after the performances: Pink Pills

Unpacking Serophobia, Migration, and Race through HIV Narratives the final public event

• To close out the project we want to talk about aids, migration, and race. We invite you to do it with us on a night of performances and discussions. 
• More on this soon!

We direct this project from our transfagbidyke and queer, poz, feminist, antiracist, materialist, and intersectional community health political agendas. It is co-produced with La Bellone, BUDA Kunstencentrum, Le Delta, erg: école de recherche graphique, Kaaitheater, and Sint Lucas Antwerpen, all of them in Belgium.

We are a group of people collaborating throughout 2023 and ‘24 under the name Aids, archives, and arts assemblies in Belgium. Our project is to host two intimate and self-organized assemblies in 2023 and 2024 between chosen diversities of people concerned with HIV and aids. The assemblies, with their self-contained audiences, are our artwork of choice, where we share inter-community knowledge and self-govern our project.