Auto Italia presents A House of Ecstatic Virality, a newly commissioned dance and movement practice work by Carlos Maria Romero in collaboration with volunteers from METRO’s Emerging Communities Programme, which engages members of London’s Latinx and Polish communities in HIV prevention and support.
Presented on World AIDS Day, this event marks the first public outcome of a project addressing the ongoing AIDS crisis and the factors primarily affecting the working class, women, people of colour and LGBTQ+ communities from the Global South. The project also addresses factors affecting recent migrants living in the UK and Europe who are affected by HIV. The project intends to engage with how contemporary society still struggles to process the impact, trauma and stigma around HIV since its appearance three decades ago.
A House of Ecstatic Virality invites the public to participate in a series of exercises drawn from research into pioneering healthcare advocacy projects the Latex Ball and The Body Electric School. As well as taking inspiration from the origins of House music culture in order to reclaim it as a Queer Black and Latinx music and dance genre. The ‘Latex Ball’ project – produced by the House of Latex (1989, New York) – was established as a public health intervention in response to the scale of loss in Latinx and Black ballroom scenes due to HIV/AIDS. The Body Electric School (1984, California), was conceived as an organisation providing therapeutic outlets for gay men to reconnect to their sexuality, since at the time gay sex was considered to be fatal.
Using methodologies for communal dance and conversation, the work aims to create a celebratory, sober, embodied and life affirming environment for people to come together freely to explore HIV related issues in a safe, relaxed and supportive manner.
The event is free to attend and everyone is welcome. A House of Ecstatic Virality is a participatory session, and all audiences members will be encouraged to actively engage with the performers. No previous experience in dance or movement practice is required.
A House of Ecstatic Virality is co-curated with artist Jack O’Brien and programmed in conjunction with Gran Fury’s exhibition Read My Lips.
Carlos Maria Romero (aka Atabey Mamasita) (b. 1979, Colombia) is a London-based multidisciplinary artist and performer. With a background in dance and live art, they work across performing and visual arts, heritage and architectural activism, pedagogy and curating. Maria Romero is the third member of SPIT! (Sodomites, Perverts, Inverts Together!) (initially part of Frieze Projects 2017), and a founding member of Vividero Colectivo, a group of multidisciplinary artists and architects. In 2016 Maria Romero created Vogue-Chi, a movement practice for people aged 50+ that evolved into a multi-generational queer and allies safe space for self-expression and coming together. The project is now provided through Micro Rainbow International to LGBTI asylum seekers.
METRO is a leading equality and diversity charity, providing health, community and youth services across London and the South East, with national and international projects. METRO works with anyone experiencing issues around sexuality, gender, equality, diversity or identity across our five domains: Sexual & Reproductive Health, Community, Mental Health & Wellbeing, Youth and HIV.
Jack O’Brien (b. 1993, UK) is an artist and curator, currently living and working in London. Working with found objects, sculpture and image-making, O’Brien’s work explores the relationships between the built environment, material cultures, queer desire and marginalised aesthetics. He has exhibited at Raven Row, London (2016), Tank.TV, London (2017) Peres Projects, Berlin (2018), was curator in residence at Tank.TV (2015).
