Every Moment Counts—AIDS and its Feelings brings together 60 international artists and over 200 works

Taking its title from a series of color prints by photographer Rotimi Fani-Kayode (1955–1989), Every Moment Counts–AIDS and its Feelings presents works from 1982 until today, including several new productions. In addition to focusing on queer culture, the exhibition also assesses the contribution of the arts to periods of intense social and political crisis.

Curated according to a broad range of differing “emotional qualities” the exhibition presents an entanglement of aesthetic research, political activism, personal experiences, and theoretical analysis. The exhibited works manifest how artists responded to the HIV/AIDS pandemic along the lines of themes including love and death, hope and resignation, intimacy and the body. Also rage and desire, care and healing, spirituality, and protection; mourning and memory, vulnerability and power, sex, politics, and activism.

Every Moment Counts—AIDS and its Feelings captures the powerful sense of urgency that artists experienced in response to the tragedy of AIDS, but more than anything else, the poetics of life and its feelings expressed by their works. As we grapple with another epidemic today, many of the issues presented in the works have the potential to add new layers of meaning.

“We want to live in a society that does not discriminate minorities and does not conform to social normativity. The resulting exhibition revisits Henie Onstad’s history and the exhibition Theme: AIDS (1993). It shows how several artists have protested and celebrated life in response to the neglect, stigma, and shame caused by the epidemic and its poor management,” says Ana María Bresciani, Senior Curator at the Henie Onstad Kunstsenter.

The exhibition is co-curated by Tommaso Speretta, invited due to his longstanding research focusing on the representations of HIV/AIDS in the arts.

“The selected works in this exhibition stand out for their contribution to fragmenting the mainstream discourse on AIDS and presenting small AIDS narratives which fostered a plural versus a universal understanding of the epidemic. Rather than reaffirming the already existing historical accounts on AIDS, the exhibition aims at pushing the boundaries of the artistic discourse on HIV/AIDS. The exhibition considers how artists differently embed in their work the personal and the political, theory and practice, politics and mass media, culture and society, through the lenses of their deeply intimate experience of the epidemic and the crisis of values it generated”, says Tommaso Speretta, co-curator of the exhibition.

In this regard, the two curators have attempted to recreate inside the museum space the overwhelming vertiginous feeling experienced by many, in their encounter with the tremendous amount of material produced during and in response to the AIDS crisis.

Today, information and knowledge are more widespread, and medical treatments have improved the daily lives of many people living with HIV/AIDS. The current pandemic demonstrates that treating an illness is as important as prioritizing access to resources. To acknowledge this priority, Henie Onstad, in collaboration with Clear Channel, is presenting a newly commissioned work by artists Elmgreen & Dragset, titled Aids Is Good, Business for Some (2011/2022), a video installation to be displayed on 736 digital advertising platforms across Norway during the period 7-21.02.2022.

Over the exhibition opening weekend, artist Paul Maheke will perform an adapted version of Taboo Durag (2021), a solo dance that reflects upon the unstable limit between vulnerability and resilience. The performance will take place on February 19, at 3:00 pm.

Singer, composer, and producer Lyra Pramuk will perform on March 26 at 3:00 pm at Henie Onstad.

As a backdrop to the exhibition, the year 2022 is significant. It marks fifty years since the decriminalization of same-sex relationships in Norway when paragraph 213 in the Norwegian Penal Code was lifted. This has led several Norwegian art institutions to address relevant issues as part of a national Queer Culture Year.

Limited to sexual conduct between men, the change in legislation not only contributed to legitimizing sexual difference, but also had cultural, social and political repercussions. The repeal of paragraph 213 preceded the HIV/AIDS pandemic in the 1980s. Granting juridical recognition to the widest spectrum of the Norwegian population abated the stigmatization of so-called “risk groups” and encouraged more inclusive prevention education programs in the 1990s.

 

Artists in the exhibition:
Soufiane Ababri, Patrick Angus, David Armstrong, Gretchen Bender, Barton Lidice Beneš, Ross Bleckner, Tessa Boffin, Andrea Bowers, Nancy Brooks Brody, Nancy Burson (with Kunio Nagashima), Feliciano Centurión, Elmgreen & Dragset, Pepe Espaliú, Rotimi Fani-Kayode, Rafael França, Gang, General Idea, Nan Goldin, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Gran Fury, Catherine Gund, Sunil Gupta, Barbara Hammer, Keith Haring, Richard Hawkins, Romuald Hazoumé, Hudinilson Jr., Peter Hujar, Lars Laumann, Matts Leiderstam, Zoe Leonard, Paul Maheke, Robert Mapplethorpe, Liliana Maresca, Bjarne Melgaard, Donald Moffett, Mark Morrisroe, Cookie Muller/ Vittorio Scarpati, Piotr Nathan, Bart Julius Peters, Jack Pierson, Karol Radziszewski, Hunter Reynolds, Marion Scemama, Fin Serck-Hanssen, Kerstin Schroedinger and Oliver Husain, Sim Simaro, Manuel Solano, Chrysanne Stathacos, Hugh Steers, Maître Syms, Tseng Kwong Chi, Zephania Tshuma, Edilson de Carvalho Viriato, David Wojnarowicz and Martin Wong.

Curators:
Ana María Bresciani and Tommaso Speretta.

The exhibition is accompanied by an exhibition guide in Norwegian with texts by an advisory group comprised of Petter Dotterud Anthun, Arne Backer Grønningsæter, Hans Erik Heier, Hiv Norge, Per Miljeteig, Ketil Slagstad and Carla Tsampiras.

A comprehensive English publication edited by Ana María Bresciani, Karen Monica Reini, and Tommaso Speretta will follow in May 2022. Foreword by Tone Hansen. Design by ANTI. Supported by the foundation for freedom of expression in Norway, Fritt Ord.

Henie Onstad will present a curated playlist alongside the exhibition.

 

In brief:

• Press preview: February 17, 10 am
• Exhibition period: February 18–May 22, 2022
• Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Høvikodden, Norway
  Opening Hours: Tuesday–Sunday 11 am–5 pm. Thursday: 11 am–9 pm. Monday closed.
• More information: hok.no