Espelhos de uma condição: reflexos da soropositividade nas obras de Félix González-Torres e Leonilson

Abstract

The first years of the 1990s were globally marked as one of the periods with the highest number of deaths due to the Aids epidemic. In this context, this study presents the factors that influenced the artistic productions of the time, in the midst of a generation impacted by the effects of the disease and wrapped in personal narratives of artists as HIV-positive subjects – which was then a synonym of imminent death. The research highlights the importance of these discourses in contrast to those that were conveyed by the large-circulation media and which contributed to the stigmatized social imaginary around Aids. The artists chosen for the analysis are Félix González-Torres (Guáimaro, 1957 – Miami, 1996) and Leonilson (Fortaleza, 1957 – São Paulo, 1993), who lived their artistic trajectories, respectively, in the United States and Brazil, locations which sociocultural circumstances and specificities in response to the epidemic are assessed in the research. Still, through the observation of selected works, and textual and audiovisual reports by the artists, the dissertation investigates the presence of the HIV and Aids allegory in the contemporary art and how these works helped build diversified narratives on this subject. Furthermore, on behalf of the role of art history in favor of multidisciplinary dialogues, this dissertation is based on the bibliography authored by critics, art historians and theorists from related fields who stood out for moving between the cultural and the political to discuss the social consequences caused by the Aids crisis