By PAMELA LORD

"People need to know that they can be tested without shame; that if they are infected they will be treated; that if they fall ill, they can live safe from discrimination,"

--Kofi Annan, Hangzhou, China, October 2002

Artist Zhu Ming inside a bubble - sealed off isolation similar to PLWHA

It is now accepted that ignorance, particularly in rural areas, is the greatest threat to the Chinese public as regards the spread of HIV AIDS. As was initially the case in the USA, there has been unwillingness to accept the extent, or indeed existence, of this menace in China. Since the UN report on HIV AIDS in June 2002, however, it is acknowledged that HIV AIDS is no longer a foreign disease, nor one confined exclusively to intravenous drug users. People from ordinary families living conventional workaday lives are now also vulnerable. Measures to spread HIV AIDS awareness in China are, therefore, crucial.

One such a measure was taken on December 1st -- International AIDS Day -- last year, when the week-long Silence Is Death exhibition, organized by La Casa Art Projects, opened in Beijing's Yan Club on Jiuxian Qiao Road, Chaoyang District.

Art in the community is the main aim of La Casa Art Projects, founded two years ago by artists Jose Abad Lorente from Spain and Diana Valarezo from Ecuador. Their objective is to broaden public appreciation of art by integrating it into common public and private spaces. The name La Casa signifies, in their own words: "Both the physical and emotional space, the home: the shared space where living happens. It is also a meeting place where views on art and life may be exchanged in a spontaneous and relaxed atmosphere."

As China develops economically, its space to exhibit, perform and enjoy interactive art is limited to traditional and commercial sites. Space is, therefore, the keynote of La Casa exhibitions. Apart from using venues like the Yan Club, La Casa also exhibits, performs music recitals and stages live theater performances at private residences and community resources. Diana and Jose want to integrate art into all levels of community. To them it is an aspect of daily-use objects and living spaces to which anyone may contribute and everyone can enjoy. The broader the scope of space for art and interaction between the Chinese and foreign art communities, the less limit there is on public exhibition of new art forms.

From this point of view, art also has a potent social function, insofar as polarizing public attention on matters that might otherwise be ignored or regarded as someone else's problem, like HIV AIDS.

Liu Ding's interactive exhibit HIV

La Casa's Silence Is Death exhibition effectively brought out into the open and demystified that special topic - AIDS HIV, how it spreads and how to arrest it through taking precautions, most particularly by using condoms. It brought home powerfully the need for public solidarity with PLWHA (people living with HIV AIDS) by pinpointing one of the most cruel aspects of HIV AIDS: that the majority of those infected are victims of ignorance, and as such should be treated with compassion within the community rather than condemned and ostracized.

The exhibition opening drew an attendance of 200, and continued to attract throngs of local and international people throughout the week. Its thought-provoking interactive exhibitions, music and theater performances and video documentaries created an atmosphere conducive to spontaneous discussions leading to greater awareness of HIV AIDS.

The art works exhibited were created by artists Liu Ding and Zhu Ming, photographer Tie Lin and modern calligraphers Wei Ligang, Zhang Dawo, Shao Yang and Danilo Oyarce.

The need of PLWHA for regular, effective medication was expressed in Liu Ding's exhibit, entitled HIV, where medication -- pills -- on a glass screen spelled out the letters HIV. The interactive aspect of this work called for viewers to add their own pills to the screen until the letters HIV were obliterated, the message being that the majority of PLWHA in China live in remote rural areas with neither the funds for nor access to the drugs that can keep them alive.

The installation designed by La Casa, Put Your Hat On, was probably the exhibition's most proactive promotion of safe sex and the proper use of condoms. It comprised a beauty salon -- well known venue for prostitution in China -- in which Tie Lin's authentic photographs of Hainan sex workers were on display, along with a collection of ancient Chinese stone dildos loaned by Tjy Liu, and various vegetables. A local young man and woman used the dildos and vegetables to demonstrate correct condom use, and viewers were then encouraged to try for themselves. In this way what would normally be a sensitive or even embarrassing topic was approached in a practical, yet artistic way. More important, it showed people of a wide age range how to protect themselves and their families from HIV AIDS, while at the same time maintaining demographic control.

Positive Art Jam

The social alienation suffered by PLWHA was expressed in an exhibition of photographs by artist Zhu Ming, passive, inside a bubble against various settings. The images were Zhu Ming's empathetic concept of life in sealed-off isolation from society and the world, currently the only way of life possible for the majority of PLWHA in China.

AIDS awareness and the need for care of PLWHA in the community was the theme of various abstract Chinese characters painted by calligraphers Wei Ligang, Zhang Dawo, Shao Yang and Danilo Oyarce. The artists later took their works to the Positive Art Workshop, a one-year art project at the You'an Hospital, where they now give personal instruction on calligraphic techniques to PLWHA. The workshop provides the opportunity to discuss pieces of work and what they express, as well as to learn art techniques. Works from the Positive Art Workshop are to be adapted into products such as calendars, postcards, posters and T-shirts, all of which will go on sale locally and internationally. These products will help reduce the social stigma of HIV AIDS, and sale proceeds will gain PLWHA a measure of economic independence.

Performance events opened with an evening house-music party arranged by popular DJ and active promoter of AIDS awareness and safe sex, Yan Bing. A play, performed in mime, The Mask of the Red Death, based on a short story by Edgar Allen Poe about a town ravaged by plague followed. It endorsed the theme of AIDS prevention, and the futility of ignoring its existence.

Two videos were screened, one made in Thailand called With Hope and Help showing how it has been possible to reintegrate PLWHA into society through various local work projects. The second, by youth activist Li Dan, was about the widespread and devastating consequences of blood plasma selling in Henan Province. A discussion between Li Dan and the audience of 150, comprising locals, people from overseas and PLWHA, ensued.

Solidarity with PLWHA was the theme of the Positive Art Jam afternoon, which created an opportunity for interaction between PLWHA participants of the Henan-You'An hospital project, which brings 30 HIV positive rural inhabitants into Beijing each month for treatment and medication, workers from AIDS organizations, and the media. All 60 people took part in the Solidarity Net Art Jam, when the installation, Red Camouflage, was created by weaving a net out of individual red ribbons, on each of which was written a wish, hope or dream, eventually forming the Chinese character ren - person.

On Thursday 5th rock bands Miserable and Brain Failure performed, interspersing their show with statements and slogans on AIDS prevention. The following night local all-girl band Wild Strawberries, Boston band Damone and Beijing's Thin Man played the performance finale before a rapturous audience of 500, the majority of whom were students from various Beijing universities. This event included distribution, compliments of Durex, of 2,000 condoms.

The week's events ended after an afternoon gathering of 100 people at the International School, and a party hosted by DJs Wen Wen and Xiao Lei, where rock star Cui Jian made an appearance.

The Silence Is Death exhibition made a significant contribution to heightened HIV AIDS awareness in China, and of the physical and mental anguish suffered by PLWHA. The knowledge that there are people who accept and want to help and support, rather than judge or shun them, may also have given a handful of Chinese PLWHA a glimmer of hope for the future. La Casa's ongoing project, the Positive Art Workshop, can maintain this ray of light. Say Diana and Jose: "Our hope is that this workshop will act as testimony to the need for acceptance of people with HIV AIDS into the community, to improve tolerance, and avoid stigma."

Silence Is Death also proved the La Casa Art Projects theory that by being a part of everyday life, and acting as a shared focus of awareness of its dangers, tragedies, blessings, and beauty, art stimulates and unites the living.