Still Beginning: The 30th Annual Day With(out) Art Presented by Visual AIDS

Floor 3, Theater

The Whitney Museum of American Art is proud to partner with Visual AIDS for the thirtieth annual Day With(out) Art to present STILL BEGINNING, a program of seven newly commissioned videos responding to the ongoing HIV/AIDS epidemic. Recalling Gregg Bordowitz’s reminder that “THE AIDS CRISIS IS STILL BEGINNING,”* the video program resists narratives of resolution or conclusion. The work in this program asserts the continued urgency of HIV/AIDS in the contemporary moment while revisiting resonant cultural histories from the past three decades. 

The seven short videos by Shanti Avirgan, Nguyen Tan Hoang, Carl George, Viva Ruiz, Iman Shervington, Jack Waters/Victor F.M. Torres, and Derrick Woods-Morrow range in subject from public sex culture in Chicago to anti-stigma work in New Orleans, highlighting pioneering AIDS activism and staging intergenerational conversations. 

Visual AIDS is a New York-based nonprofit 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. 

*This phrase first appeared in Bordowitz’s installation Drive (2002) and was recently displayed as a banner at the Art Institute of Chicago.

This event is free but registration is required.

Accessibility Note: All videos will be screened with captions. One of the seven videos contains several minutes of rapidly flashing and contrasting light. An additional warning will be given during the program before the video plays.