On the outside looking in

The curator Miquel Bardagil has conceived the exhibition as the culmination of a process that began in 2008. Most of the artists participating in the project had never previously dealt with the subject of AIDS in any major way. The idea of the exterior, the “outside” in the exhibition’s title, is linked to the idea of the outdoors. This concept is the starting point for this exhibition, allowing us an insight into the experience of HIV-positive people. It is also the concept that underlies the exhibition and the work of the artists, who use a wide range of disciplines including as installation, photography, drawing, painting and video. Each artist was given a production budget and an artist’s fee, and will then transfer ownership of the work to ArtAids.

The Nivell Zero of the Fundació Suñol exhibits Where the Clouds are Behind Me by Biel Capllonch, which is the public image of the exhibition and suggests the possibility of a balanced relationship between humans and their environment; Lebenswelt by Francesc Abad, an installation that invites us to look at a house in ruins as a symbol of the body; the collection of AIDS-related headlines published in a newspaper over a period of almost a year called Red Line by Ignasi Aballí; the video The Astronomer Gardener by Josep-Maria Martin, which explores personal relationships through a series of interviews; and a work by twins L. A. Raeven that presents us with a person whose physical appearance has undergone a radical change.