You Are Not Alone

You Are Not Alone
Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona
July 1 – September 18 2011

Opening: on Thursday, June 30 at 7.30 PM

“When you share, you are not alone”.
Han Nefkens
Founder and President of the ArtAids Foundation

The Fundació Joan Miró and the ArtAids Foundation present You Are Not Alone, an exhibition curated by Hilde Teerlinck, director of FRAC Nord-Pas de Calais/Dunkerque and Irene Aristizábal. The exhibition has the support and involves the collaboration of Mr Han Nefkens and is sponsored by Fundació Banc Sabadell.

You are not alone is intended to prompt reflection on the discrimination and stigmatisation to which, even today, AIDS sufferers are subject. Although medical advances have increased the expectancy and quality of life of sufferers, at least in the developed world, this progress has not been reflected in a reduction in the social rejection they experience.

Social and collective initiatives can overcome false perceptions and habits arising from ignorance and prejudice, and art can help to change views and attitudes.

In You are not alone, 14 artists from around the world help to fight stigmatisation by reappraising the causes, consequences and current context of Aids as well as the ways of fighting it. The works in the exhibition offer a vision of Aids from the perspective of different countries on different continents, all of which suffer the illness to a greater or lesser intensity. These visions will help raise awareness among viewers of the need to exchange knowledge and experiences in order to fight the illness and prejudice both openly and fearlessly.

The ArtAids Foundation has produced works specifically designed for the exhibition by nine internationally acclaimed artists whose work does not generally approach the subject of Aids. The selected artists are: Deimantas Narkevicius (Lithuania), Latifa Echakhck (Morocco), Danh Vo (Denmark/Vietnam), Christodoulos Panayiotou (Cyprus), Lorena Zilleruelo (Chile), Lucy & Jorge Orta (UK and Argentina), Antoni Miralda (Spain) and Elmgreen & Dragset (Denmark and Norway).

The new works will be presented with a selection of pieces recently incorporated in the ArtAids collection by David Goldblat (South Africa), Otto Berchem (United States), Sutee Junavichayanont (Thailand), Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook (Thailand) and Juul Hondlus (the Netherlands).

The work of Matthew Darbyshire (United Kingdom), intended to provide a space for reflection about Aids, is presented at the end of the exhibition. The room recalls the approach to the subject in the nineteen-eighties and -nineties by artists such as Group Material and by Aids awareness campaigns. A view of the illness by Pepe Espaliú, a Spanish artist who died from Aids in 1993, appears by way of an introduction.

Through this exhibition, Fundació Joan Miró and the ArtAids Foundation wish to condemn and express in no uncertain terms current prejudices towards Aids, which contribute to the isolation of sufferers. If, as Han Nefkens states, sharing means not feeling alone, then it is our wish to share this sentiment with the public to provide a reminder that “you are not alone”.

You are not alone will subsequently travel to the Museo de Arte Contemporánea de Vigo (MARCO), where it will remain from 21 October 2011 until February 2012.

This exhibition is the second collaboration with Han Nefkens, creator of the ArtAids Foundation, who also took part in the Pipilotti Rist exhibition.