Research Article

Photography as Engaged Art—Queer Utopias during the HIV/AIDS Crisis

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Abstract

The HIV/AIDS epidemic of the 1980s and 1990s marks a social failure in the West towards those affected by the HI virus and those dying from it. From the mid-1980s, this failure was met with political and artistic resistance. Artistic action has been combined with political protest in a new way. In addition, a new form of queer utopian art emerged, which found expression in photography, among other things. The article focuses on queer utopia as an engagement and goes into the special role of photography during the HIV/AIDS crisis. Using three photographs by Jürgen Baldiga, Mark Morrisroe and David Wojnarowicz, it explains how art confronted the HIV/AIDS crisis by looking for queer utopias.

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