Since 1989, Day Without Art has taken place annually on December 1st, World AIDS Day. Originating in New York, and founded by Visual AIDS, Day Without Art has led the art world’s response to HIV and AIDS for almost 30 years. Each year, events and actions take place which seek to creatively divert attention towards HIV and AIDS; to remember the enormous losses to the creative world from AIDS, and to celebrate the work of artists living with HIV.
In 1998, Day Without Art became Day With(out) Art, to highlight the growing number of creative projects which actively focussed on HIV and AIDS. Day With(out) Art has spread to cities across the world, with an estimated 8000 organisations now taking part in this annual creative event.
This year, Superbia – the arts and culture programme from Manchester Pride – will co-ordinate Manchester’s first ever Day With(out) Art, in association with Visual AIDS in New York. Events will take place at Manchester Central Library, Bury Art Museum, LGBT Foundation, The Penthouse at Paradise Works, and Texture, including work from Gerry Potter, HIVideo, Drunk At Vogue and Visual AIDS.
Here at HOME the team wish to celebrate the talents of not only individuals who have passed from AIDS, but also the creative flair that frequently flows from male, female and non-binary persons whose fluid and non-heteronormative sexualities have influenced art, film and performance. Books, films and art monographs with queer themes and authorship have been wrapped as anonymous gifts* and will be distributed throughout the building on Fri 1 Dec 2017 for the public to find, from the café bar to the cinemas, galleries, theatre spaces, public areas, seating, bookshops and at the feet of Engels outside.
HOME want to remind you of not only that which we have lost, but all that we have gained. At noon each day of The Return of Memory exhibition, both in the gallery and online, Declan Clarke and Sarah Perks reveal another person, group, or place they believe was betrayed by revolution for One Day The Sadness Will End. For #DayWithoutArtMcr this work will feature Patient Zero: French-Canadian flight attendant Gaëtan Dugas, who was falsely accused as being the first carrier of HIV into North America. Finally, a playlist of music selected by DJ Greg Thorpe of Superbia/Drunk At Vogue will be played in the venue throughout the day.
(*Hidden gifts include The Velvet Rage by Alan Downs, Queer: A Graphic History by Meg-John Barker, My Own Private Idaho (Dir. Gus Van Sant), Leigh Bowery: Photographs 1988-1994, The Orton Diaries, Entertaining Mr Sloane (Dir. Douglas Hickcox), Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin, acting text for The Killing of Sister George by Franc Marcus, Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson and AL and AL’s Incidents of Travel in the Multiverse.)
The full Day With(out) Art programme can be seen here and follow the hashtag #DayWithoutArtMcr
http://superbia.org.uk/events/day-without-art-manchester
