ArtMoves

ArtMoves was a moving event, or “happening,” rather than a conventional exhibition: a portable, arts-based HIV/AIDS intervention presented on retrofitted auto-rickshaws and other local conveyances. Created in 2007 in the lead-up to the MAKE ART/STOP AIDS exhibition at the Fowler Museum at UCLA, the project offered a window into how artists in India, Brazil, South Africa, and the United States were responding to AIDS. The project highlighted each country’s distinct sociocultural conditions and artistic responses. ArtMoves promoted international dialogue about treatment inequality and the importance of effective government action.

Parthiv Shah of the Centre for Media and Alternative Communication in New Delhi conceived ArtMoves while the UCLA Art & Global Health Center was organizing a museum exhibition to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS. The exhibition’s curators recognized that conventional museum presentations would be too costly and exclusive in many Indian settings, creating a need for a less expensive and more accessible alternative. Participants in a UNESCO-supported workshop of artists and activists developed the idea of a portable presentation that could travel through city streets and villages and reach people regardless of social class or literacy. Rather than limit the project to gallery visitors, they gave it wheels, quite literally. ArtMoves debuted on World AIDS Day.