Moderated by Samuel Perea-Díaz

The event explores artistic approaches and research to HIV/AIDS as archival practices, featuring a performance by Benny Nemer, talks by David Aaron Swartz and Siân Cook, and an artist talk with filmmaker Carla Simón, and the screening of her film “Estiu 1993” (Summer 1993), a personal film reflecting on loss, memory, and the AIDS a child´s perspective.

13:00-14:00 
PERFORMANCE 

“Several Favourable Bodies” is a performance and accompanying video that traces the unfolding of Benny Nemer’s research into the strange fate of the postcard collection of French photographer and author Hervé Guibert (1955-1991). In search of an appropriate and meaningful aesthetics for his artistic engagement with AIDS histories, Nemer’s performance activates queer methods, participatory research techniques, and a process that privileges the formation of transhistorical bonds of kinship. 

Benny Nemer (@benny_nemer) is a Montreal-born artist, diarist, and researcher based in Paris. His multidisciplinary practice often traces the affective contours of love and longing while facilitating bonds of kinship between his audience, figures from history, and himself, taking form through audio work, performance, participatory actions, epistolary writing, and flower arranging. Benny is currently a postdoctoral researcher at KASK & Conservatorium, where he is pursuing research into queer kinship, postcards as artistic medium, and the archive of French author and photographer Hervé Guibert. www.nemer.be

14:00-15:00 Break

15:00-16:30  
Archival Practices in Berlin and the UK’s HIV/AIDS Visual Culture

Talk: Archiving HIV/AIDS: Introduction, Berlin Spotlight, and Research Findings, by David Aaron Swartz

“Archiving HIV/AIDS: Introduction, Berlin Spotlight, and Research Findings” will be a Talk and multi-media Presentation by David Aaron Swartz, who will be sharing about his past few years of intensive research around an orbit of topics including queer club culture, HIV/AIDS activism, cultural responses to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and public educational campaigns. He will provide an overview of archival resources and materials, including a particular local focus centered around his personal experiences navigating the rich archival landscape within Berlin.

David Aaron Swartz (IG: @daswartzy) has been HIV+ since June 2010. He was born and raised in Los Angeles, studied Sociology at The University of Colorado at Boulder, and then spent a decade living back in Los Angeles before moving to Berlin in 2015. He comes from a background of over two decades working across the music industry (most significantly as an artist manager). Over the past two years since stepping away from working directly in the music industry, David has been engaged in continuing education (e.g. courses at NODE Academy for Curatorial Studies and the recent completion of a Post-Graduate Certificate of Higher Education from the SAE Institute for Creative Media Education) and has been involved a dedicated practice of independent research, guest curation, and the development of an archive focused on contemporary queer club culture.
https://linktr.ee/daswartzy || www.queerclubculture.com || www.davidaaronswartz.com 

Talk: Take Care (of that archive) by Siân Cook

“Take Care (of that archive)” It is important that graphic ephemera is included as part of the HIV and AIDS visual culture legacy. The materials produced, from local activist organisations to regional health authorities, help build a more complete picture of the epidemic. These tangible visual reminders, combined with lived experience, bear witness to how we attempted to inform and look after our friends and communities, especially during pre-digital times. ‘Take Care’ is a phrase that can be applied in different ways to HIV transmission, people living with HIV, but also archival practice itself.

Siân Cook is a graphic designer and Senior Lecturer in Graphic and Media Design at London College of Communication, University of the Arts London. She has been involved with UK HIV and AIDS organisations for over 30 years and has volunteered and designed for Terrence Higgins Trust, Red Hot AIDS, National AIDS Trust, the National HIV Story Trust and Positively UK. She helped create numerous campaigns for GMFA (originally Gay Men Fighting AIDS) throughout the 2000s and 2010s and was on their Board of Directors.

Siân began collecting examples of UK HIV and AIDS graphic ephemera in the 90s and has built an online archive to make this material more widely available:
http://www.hivgraphiccommunication.com

16:30-17:30 Break

17:30
ARTIST TALK
by filmmaker Carla Simón

Summer 1993 is the first feature film of filmmaker Carla Simon (Barcelona *1986). The film was first opened on the 11th of February 2017 in Berlin, which was enthusiastically received, as it also was at the many presentations at international film festivals. Summer 1993 (2017) was her autobiographical debut. It premiered at the 2017 Berlinale, where it won the Best Film Award and the Grand Jury Prize of the Generation Kplus section. The film has received more than 30 awards worldwide and earned her the Goya Award for Best New Director, in addition to being selected to represent Spain at the Oscars. Simón also received the Women in Motion Emerging Talent Award at Cannes in 2018.

Carla Simón (born 1986) is a film writer and director raised in a small Catalan village. Part of an extensive family that is a bottomless pit of stories, she decided to make films. Graduated in Audiovisual Communication in Barcelona, Carla got a scholarship to complete her MA at the London Film School. Summer 1993 (2017) is her autobiographical debut. It won the Best First Feature Award and the Generation Kplus Grand Prix at the Berlinale, along with three Goya awards, including Best New Director. The film represented Spain at the 2018 Oscar Academy Awards, got the Discovery nomination at the European Film Awards and it gave Carla the Kering emerging Women in Motion award in Cannes. In 2022, Simón released her last short film Letter to my mother for my son, a Miu Miu tale premiered at Giornate degli Autori in the 79th Venice International Film Festival. Her second feature film, Alcarràs (2022) won the precious Golden Bear at the Berlinale. It was selected in more than 90 international film festivals and was sold to more than 35 territories. It also represented Spain at the 2023 Oscar Academy Awards, it got three nominations at the European Film Awards and it won six Gaudí awards from the Catalan Cinema Academy. In 2023, Carla got the Spanish National Cinematography Award. Romería, Simón’s third feature film, will have its world premiere in the Official Competition at the Cannes Film Festival.

19:00
FILM SCREENING
Summer 1993, original language (Catalan) with English subtitles (96 minutes)

Synopsis:
In the summer 1993, following the death of her parents, six years old Frida moved from Barcelona to the Catalan province to live with her aunt and uncle, who are now her new legal guardians. The country life is a challenge for Frida – time passes differently in her new home and the nature that surrounds her is mysterious and strange. She now has a little sister for whom she has to take care of and has to deal with new feelings, such as jealousy. Often, Frida is naively convinced that running away would be the best solution to her problems. Yet, the family does what it can to achieve a fragile new balance and bring normality to their life. Occasional family outings to a local fiesta or a swimming pool, cook-ing or listening to jazz in the garden bring them moments of happiness. Slowly, Frida realizes that she is there to stay and has to adapt to the new environment. Before the season is over, she has to cope with her emotions and her parents have to learn to love her as their own daughter.

*With the support of AC/E’s Programme for the Internationalization of Spanish Culture (PICE)