Panos Fourtoulakis: A Time to Remember

The collective cultural memories of the AIDS crisis are mostly informed by artistic perspectives from the US and the UK. Yet, little is widely known about how artists and other cultural practitioners responded in Greece.

During my residency, I will conduct new research into artistic responses and broader cultural reflections on the AIDS crisis in Greece, with a focus on Athens.

I am interested in exploring how artistic communities responded to the crisis, by looking into practices, films, music, and ephemera – researching for works that tend to be forgotten by most, have yet to be framed accordingly or were censored at the time. I want to understand better the cultural context of that period and at the same time explore how attitudes towards HIV have changed since then.

To achieve this, I will conduct a series of interviews with artists, academics, and other cultural producers who were active then and now. I will also look into archives and bring together existing research to foster an intergenerational dialogue that encompasses diverse knowledge and approaches related to the topic.