What’s more basic than a pair of jeans and as necessary as a true love?
A condom, of course.
In honor of World AIDS Day and the 25th anniversary of the identification of AIDS virus at UCLA, Fowler museum is proud to present “Dress up Against AIDS: Condom Couture” by Brazilian artist Adriana Bertini.
In collaboration with the Center for Art/Global Health at UCLA, Fowler developed the “Make Art/Stop AIDS” exhibition project. It’s goal is explicit: to spread the message about safe sex through the development of art.
“Adriana Bertini is one of the artists selected for ‘Make Art/Stop AIDS’ because her line of couture dresses is so clearly an effort to educate viewers about the importance of condoms in preventing the transmission of HIV/AIDS,” said Marla Berns, director of the Fowler Museum.
As the AIDS epidemic continues to affect an overwhelming number of countries globally, Bertini uses defective or expired condoms to create a new AIDS prevention campaign – one that puts the viewer face-to-face with the truth about protection.
“My main goal is to make my art help people think about and have their first experience in discussing safe sex,” Bertini said.
Bertini’s interest in AIDS began with her participation with Greenpeace. From that experience, Bertini became acquainted with the disease and came in contact with her first condom. From Greenpeace, Bertini continued to work with other AIDS prevention organizations such as GAPA, where she worked with HIV-positive children.
“When I was working with these children I began to learn more about AIDS the disease itself,” Bertini said. “I then began relating the disease with art.”
Her first work consisted of photographs of condoms in various places: on the beach, in the street – anywhere. She then produced her first garment: a T-shirt with a single condom as adornment. Ten years later, Bertini has over 200 sculptures, 160 figurines and 80 pictures under her belt.
While spending a minimum of 100 hours to a max of 500 on a single garment, Bertini receives assistance from people with AIDS that are unable to find work and from women prisoners in Brazil. But it’s not the fashion praise that Bertini is concerned about, it’s provoking dialogue and pushing the topic of condoms and disease off of its unspeakable pedestal.
“I’m not worried about fashion,” Bertini said. “My job and my dresses and my art are to help people begin thinking about (condoms and safe sex).”
As citizens of an overwhelmingly Catholic country, the people of Brazil often consider the topic of sex – and more importantly safe sex – taboo. Even in the United States, despite many efforts to spread prevention methods, the matter of getting tested and using protection is often ignored and avoided. These couture garments break the silence.
“I think that she puts a unique spin on a message that, although is important, many people are unaware of it,” said third-year physiological sciences student Dan Kao. “I think because of its uniqueness, it will catch people’s attention and in turn, direct awareness.”
Not only does Bertini want to stress the practice of safe sex, she also wants to recognize the relationship between protection and pleasure.
“I’m trying to improve the desire of having safe sex,” Bertini said. “I think that it’s important to not make sex for sex but for love. I want my art to promote tenderness and respect first, not only sex.”
The line between the risks of pleasure and self-denial is hard to confront, but Bertini’s dresses – and upcoming male garments – makes the responsibilities of pleasure more approachable.
“Bertini wants people to comprehend that condoms provide protection at the same time they facilitate pleasure,” Berns said. “It is precisely because Bertini’s work operates on so many levels that we believe it will be especially engaging and provocative for a wide range of students at UCLA.”