Are we connected by HIV & aids?

From July 13 to 18, 2024 at BUDA Kunstencentrum in Kortrijk, “Aids, archives, and arts assemblies in Belgium” will host an assembly to practice spoken word as an archival tool between 13 people concerned with HIV & aids and impacted by serophobia.

We will gather around the question “How is this remembered?” which was coined in response to this project by London writer Juliet Jacques. Taking part in queer and feminist traditions of oral cultures, we will tell each other our present and future stories of aids, which aren’t stable but rest in transition. We invite you, with us, to recount stories intimately, in the absence of any other audience or documentation, contrasting with contemporary Western arts politics of queer visibility.

What is in the programme?

People present are invited to collaborate in two group activities: self-organization and a daily spoken recap. The self-organization includes cooking, cleaning, scheduling our program, hosting group conversations, and overall getting organized between us. Each evening, during the spoken recap, one person will recount their story of the day, sharing with the group in about ten minutes how they remember their latest 24 hours.

There will be regular optional workshops throughout the assembly: on storytelling with nixie; on mass media HIV & aids representations with Roberto Tovar, founder of Número de Serie; and on canal boating with Castillo.

People present can join all activities or just some.

This project is part of the European programme apap, a project co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union.

Aids, archives, and arts assemblies in Belgium

“Aids, archives, and arts assemblies in Belgium” is the project to host two intimate assemblies in 2023 and ’24, self-organized between people concerned with HIV & aids and impacted by serophobia, as well as events with different audiences. It aims at devising processes to carry out projects on aids, archives, and arts made by and for people concerned with HIV & aids. We, Castillo, Emmanuel Cortés, and Talya, direct this project from our HIV+, transfagbidyke-queer, feminist, antiracist, materialist, harm reductionist, and intersectional community health political agendas. The project is coproduced with La Bellone, BUDA Kunstencentrum, Le Delta, erg: école de recherche graphique, Flanders Arts Institute, Kaaitheater, Nadine vzw, Sint Lucas Antwerpen, and Viernulvier, all of them in Belgium.