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„Wendet Wut, Angst, Kummer in Aktivität.“ Zur Dialektik von Emotionen und Pragmatismus in der AIDS-Aktivistenkunst der 1980er und 1990er Jahre in New York City

    Gisela Theising

VIRUS Band 22, pp. 207-224, 2023/12/28

Schwerpunkt: Epidemie und Emotion

doi: 10.1553/virus22s207

doi: 10.1553/virus22s207


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doi:10.1553/virus22



doi:10.1553/virus22s207



doi:10.1553/virus22s207

Abstract

In 1988, the exhibition “ACT UP at White Columns”, a gallery in NYC, caused a sensation. ACT UP is a political movement that has fought against homophobia in society and politics and for adequate public education on AIDS as well as better medical care for HIV-positive and AIDS patients ever since 1987. An integral part of this movement was the work of artists, who, in an artistically condensed form, expressed the demand to break the silence of political leaders and not to be paralyzed by the overwhelming emotions caused by the AIDS crisis. In the following, the role of the artists in dealing constructively and successfully with the dialectic of emotions and pragmatism during the AIDS crisis will be evaluated by contrasting selected individual and collective works.

Keywords: AIDS activist art, heteronormativity, queer, New York City, 20th century, ACT UP NYC, Fierce Pussy, Gran Fury, SILENCE=DEATH