Keeping the Promise
World AIDS Day
Contemporary Malaise
We Speak for Our Difference. LGTBIQ+ Programme
Over the past 30 years, World AIDS Day has been commemorated on 1 December. During this period, the protests, struggles and actions related to what life with HIV entails have varied, depending on the different stages of the AIDS crisis. Yet despite these changes, exercising memory has shown us the ongoing emergency situation of a movement that decries and reveals the problems with the neoliberal system in which we find ourselves. One such problem is defined today as the ‘pharmaceuticalization’ of life, a relationship that is not simply medical/scientific but rather implies an alliance with the pharmaceutical industry.
The slogan this year, “Communities make the difference”, seeks to underscore the vital work of groups of people organised to tackle aspects of the crisis, not only in the field of healthcare but also other areas, such as legal, social and emotional care.
In conjunction with this day, the Museo Reina Sofía will participate in actions by putting forward activities that articulate memory exercises with present-day reflections, organising a session featuring the participation of associations and people doing research and making art works that revolve around life with HIV. The starting points of the day will be the pharmaceuticalization of life, the role of communities and the current set of AIDS-related problems.
Furthermore, there will be a presentation of the forthcoming formation of the study group Espantando el mal (Scaring Evil Away), to be established at the end of January 2020. The group’s cornerstone of reflection is the possibility of conjointly considering forms of daily resistance and collective alternatives in the face of the pharmaceuticalization of life and the contemporary malaise created by our neoliberal reality.
The encounter and study group is coordinated and supported by Equipo re, a research and production platform that works at the crossroads between body and archive politics. Coordinators: Nancy Garín and Linda Valdés (Equipo re).