Eugenio Echeverría and Lina Meruane in Conversation: FEARLESS LATIN/X AMÉRICA

FEARLESS LATIN/X AMÉRICA: SIDA+VIOLENCIA+ACCIÓN was on display on the People's Wall at the entrance to El Museo del Barrio's exhibition galleries April 29 through June 11, highlighting narratives relating to HIV/AIDS and Latinx América. The FEARLESS LATIN/X AMÉRICA: SIDA+VIOLENCIA+ACCIÓN featured dissident narratives from Chile, Cuba, Mexico and the United States, integrating text, artwork, photography and documents. The display established a critical chronological analysis considering how HIV/AIDS has been understood by hegemonic structures as a way of affecting traditionally outraged groups, out of a local and global perspective and a postcolonial approach.

The range of materials in the FEARLESS LATIN/X AMÉRICA: SIDA+VIOLENCIA+ACCIÓN included creative responses, public policy facts, reproductions of political speeches by public officials, media publications, scientific publications, statistic data, Latin-American literature, and artwork reproductions. Seeking a critical reading on the evolution of discourses around the culture of HIV/AIDS, the project focused on three nodes: Identity as it relates to links within community; the institutionalization of systemic violence towards vulnerable communities through public policies, science and media; and dissident narratives correlating United States neocolonialism and the response from Latin-American countries to the HIV/AIDS crisis.

Bios:

Eugenio Echeverría lives and works in Mexico City, Mexico, where he is the founder and director of Border Cultural Center. Since 2006, Border Cultural Center has coordinated over 100 interdisciplinary exhibitions and site-specific interventions. Highlights include QUEER UP! (DYKES, FAGS, WEIRDOS & YOU), a 12 month program of residencies, seminars, exhibitions and more considering LGBTQI identities, in collaboration with Laos Salazar; MULTIVERSO TRANS, a four day conference on trans identities conceptualized in collaboration with artists and trans activists focusing on violence, sex work, access to healthcare, legislative reforms and the autonomy of trans individuals, including LO QUE SE VE NO SE PREGUNTA, the first Mexican exhibition on trans identities, curated with Tania Pomar, Susana Vargas and Laos Salaza; and the upcoming project HACKING THE CITY, fostering discussion on civil disobedience in urban contexts, directed by Edith Medina.

Lina Meruane is an award-winning Chilean writer and scholar, currently teaching at the Global Liberal Studies Program at New York University. Among her books in fiction and non fiction is her work on the representation of the AIDS crisis in Latin American Literatures, translated into English as Viral Voyages.Tracing AIDS in Latin America by Palgrave MacMillan in 2014.

Presented in collaboration with Visual AIDS, Residency Unlimited and El Museo del Barrio

Launched in 2012, Visual AIDS and Residency Unlimited (RU) join efforts to host a one-month residency program for a curator, art historian, or arts writer interested in the intersection of visual art and HIV/AIDS. The curatorial residency encourages the development of exhibitions, programs, and scholarship about HIV/AIDS and contemporary art. The resident curator conducts research in Visual AIDS' archives with access to slides, digital images, publications and other resources. The archives hold over 17,000 digital and slide images by over 600 artists living with HIV and the estates of artists who have passed away.

El Museo del Barrio, New York's leading Latino cultural institution, welcomes visitors of all backgrounds to discover the artistic landscape of Latino, Caribbean, and Latin American cultures. Their richness is represented in El Museo's wide-ranging collections and exhibitions, complemented by film, literary, visual and performing arts series, cultural celebrations, and educational programs. A dynamic artistic, cultural, and community gathering place, El Museo is a center of cultural pride on New York’s Museum Mile.