Works that shock and shake up in a maelstrom of sensations. The exhibition at the Strasbourg Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MAMCS) dedicated to the AIDS years, places itself at the crossroads of the arts and the political and social history of the last forty years. A rich and impactful immersive journey.
“A serious illness with a little name”this is how the singer Prince spoke about AIDS in 1987 in his song Sign O’ The Times, “A big disease with a little name”. Forty years after the discovery of the virus, the Strasbourg Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art has brought together around a hundred works which bear witness to the artistic proliferation of the last four decades.
Most of the artists exhibited knew they were doomed, like Bruno Pélassy, a visual artist who died of illness at the age of 36. One of his works designed in 1995 when he was already ill, displayed in red letters “Long live the dead” on a curtain of Swarovsky crystals. “It is the message of an artist who knows that he is heading towards a very complex outcome,” explains Estelle Pietrzyk, curator of the exhibition and chief curator of heritage at MAMCS. “IHe’s going to make something magnificent out of it. He uses these crystals to make a hyper-luminous, hyper-attractive work.”
Taking up social issues
Immersion in the 80s and 90s, the world of the night, a space of all possibilities and all risks. At that time tens of thousands of people died of AIDS. A tragedy of which the museum today wants to be the guardian. “VSwas part of the DNA of the museums of the city of Strasbourg”, testifies Paul Lang, director of the Strasbourg City Museums. “Alongside the more heritage exhibitions which revolve around our collections, it is about tackling social issues.”
Museums are markers in the life of the city which must contribute as cultural and public institutions to living together.
Paul Langdirector of the city of Strasbourg museums
If the virus takes away a generation of artists, visual artists, writers or even choreographers, it also instills a tremendous creative momentum. The illness creeps in overtly or implicitly and the works are supported by militant commitments. Struggles for tolerance, visibility and the rights of minorities are being organized.
AIDS today
The exhibition also traces medical advances and the speech that is gradually becoming freer. Serophobia at work, growing old with HIV, so many subjects that are still taboo today. Throughout the exhibition, hours run by associations are organized alongside the visits. A way of placing the disease in the contemporary debate.
“I’m not sure that people all know that today we can live with HIV”explains Alice Burg, cultural project and mediation manager for the Strasbourg museums. “It hasn’t been long since homosexual people have been able to donate blood. Ultimately there are a lot of things that have not been updated, we have forgotten a little, new generations even more so.”
The exhibition “In the Times of AIDS” is on view from October 6 to February 4, 2024, at the Strasbourg Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, MAMCS