For Day With(out) Art 2023, Visual AIDS presented EVERYONE I KNOW IS SICK, a program of five videos generating connections between HIV and other forms of illness and disability.
The program features newly commissioned short videos by artists working across the world:
Dorothy Cheung (Hong Kong)
Hiura Fernandes & Lili Nascimento (Brazil)
Beau Gomez (Canada/Philippines)
Dolissa Medina & Ananias P. Soria (USA)
Kurt Weston (USA)
Inspired by a statement from Cyrée Jarelle Johnson in the book Black Futures, Everyone I Know Is Sick examines how our society excludes disabled and sick people by upholding a false dichotomy of health and sickness. Inviting us to understand disability as a common experience rather than an exception to the norm, the program highlights a range of experiences spanning HIV, COVID, mental health, and aging. The commissioned artists foreground the knowledge and expertise of disabled and sick people in a world still grappling with multiple ongoing pandemics.
The artists in this year’s program were selected through an open call process juried by writer Kimberly Drew and artists Marguerite Van Cook, Charan Singh, and Pato Hebert.
Everyone I Know Is Sick premiered at the Whitney Museum on November 30, 2023 for World AIDS Day/Day With(out) Art, and also screened at 130+ museums, art institutions, and universities around the world. See a complete list of screening locations here.