The ArtAids Foundation and the Fundació Suñol are proud to present the joint exhibition PERFECT LOVERS: Art in the Time of Aids, curated by Hilde Teerlinck, director of FRAC Nord-Pas de Calais. The exhibition brings together key works by leading artists who have worked and/or currently work with issues closely linked to Aids in a bid to raise public awareness and understanding of this devastating illness through the language of art.
The exhibition PERFECT LOVERS, specifically produced for the rooms of the Fundaci6 Sufiol, brings together important works by prominent artists who played a crucial role in the fight against HIV/AIDS when it first emerged in the early 1980s. Even though their message is very explicit, many of these works surprise us with their strong poetic nature. Rather than portraying those who are touched by this disease, the works awaken a state of mind in the viewers and invite them to step back and consider the issue from a distance. In the works of art of this project there is a strong symbology to find out, expressed by the artists according to their own experience and sensibility.
One of the aims of the exhibition is to show that AIDS remains a crucial issue in today's society. A third of HIV carriers do not know they are infected and can unknowingly pass on the virus.
Apart from the works in different formats (sculpture, photography, video and installations) by very well known artists from around the world, including Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Derek Jarman, Peter Hujar, Pepe Espaliu, Robert Gober, General Idea, Robert Mapplethorpe and Nan Goldin, the ArtAids Foundation commissioned new pieces by Keren Cytter, Willem de Rooij and Eulalia Valldosera, to create a bridge between the art in the time of AIDS from the early 1980s and 1990s and the present ones.
The Fundació Suñol is a private non-profit organisation that puts on temporary exhibitions to show pieces from the Josep Suñol Collection, which comprises over 1,200 art works. It also holds shows on artists linked to the collection and organises joint projects with other institutions, such as this partnership with the ArtAids Foundation. It also encourages and promotes avantgarde art work in its adjoining space, Nivell Zero.
The ArtAids Foundation was set up in the Netherlands in 2006 by writer and collector Han Nefkens, who has lived with HIV since 1987. This private foundation strives to combat the stigma surrounding HIV/Aids by commissioning pieces by acclaimed international artists who work with the illness and related issues. These art works are used to raise public awareness and change society's attitude towards people living with HIV. This is the sec ond time it has worked with the Fundaci6 Sufiol, following the exhibition On the Outside Looking In (2009).
