A dive into “four decades of creation”: 40 years after the discovery of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), Strasbourg is exhibiting from Friday some 80 artists whose works were irrigated by one of the deadliest epidemics Of the history.

Called “In the time of AIDS. Works, stories and interlacings”, until February 4 at the Strasbourg Museum of Contemporary and Modern Art (MAMCS) it is offering more than 150 works by artists, including the American photographer Nan Goldin, the French sculptor Jean-Michel Othoniel , the German singer Klaus Nomi, the protean American artist David Wojnarowicz and the French writer Hervé Guibert. Like many other artists, these last three were also killed by the AIDS virus.

“A journey through four decades of creation without borders” which combines art, “scientific research” and “popular culture” but also “the decisive action of associations” in the fight against an epidemic which has to date killed more than 40 million of victims in the world, explains the director of Strasbourg museums, Paul Lang. He confides that he “personally” wanted this exhibition “since 2017”, “postponed twice” due to another virus, that of Covid. “She will solicit” visitors, assures Estelle Pietrzyk, director of the MAMCS and curator of the exhibition. “There is dancing, music, moments when the body will also be used.”

Structured into 10 “sections” spread over more than 600 m2 (“Antechamber”, “I’m going out tonight”, “This is my blood”, “Proliferation”…), it opens onto an impressive “corridor of time “. On the wall, posters of films about the virus (120 beats per minute, Philadelphia, Les nuits fauves), photos, books, a medicine cabinet full of medicines and even the portrait of Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, co-discoverer of the virus. HIV in 1983 and Nobel Prize in Medicine 2008.

Prince’s song Sign O’ the Times (1987) plays in the background: “in France, a skinny man died of a big disease with a little name” disease which has a little name”).

An invitation to a journey back in time, from current posters on PrEP (a treatment taken as prevention to avoid contracting AIDS) to the noisy and anxiety-inducing front pages of the early 1980s, when we were still talking about a “ gay cancer. Like this article from Paris Match in 1983 on “the new plague. She is already in France. (sic) AIDS, this disease that terrifies America!”

Further on, the “This is my blood” section displays photos of the blood of American artist Andres Serrano (notably known for his controversial work “Piss Christ”).

Those of Hervé Guibert, who openly spoke about his illness in several books (“To the friend who did not save my life”, “The compassionate protocol”) are also present: one, famous, shows, in a game of mirrors, the philosopher Michel Foucault, who also died of AIDS in 1984.

Spaces are reserved for viewing film extracts (“All About My Mother” by Pedro Almodovar, “Bad Blood” by Leos Carrax, etc.) or emblematic television passages, such as when actress Isabelle Adjani had to deny it on TF1 the insistent rumor that she was suffering from AIDS.

The very rich exhibition also offers an astonishing “beautiful closet”, a sort of secret room designed by Jean-Michel Othoniel and which houses some evocative works, such as the photo of a fellatio subjected to X-rays.

At the end of the tour, the “Dance = Live” section invites visitors to equip themselves with audio headsets provided in order to sketch out a few dance steps.

At the same time, screenings, workshops and conferences are also planned and an information center on the virus (screening, support for patients, etc.) will also be open in the museum during the exhibition.