Beginning in the boardroom: a new installation in Joseph Kosuth's "Guests and Foreigners" series is a tribute to the supporters of an AIDS organization - On Site - American Foundation for AIDS Research

Guests and Foreigners: Corporal Histories is a recent and continuing installation by Joseph Kosuth on the walls of the boardroom, lobby and hallways of the Wall Street headquarters of the American Foundation for AIDS Research (Amfar). An enveloping typographic diagram that interweaves words and images in many sizes and styles, the project is one of the ongoing "Guests and Foreigners" series that Kosuth has installed at locations in Turkey, Norway, Germany, Japan and Ireland.

The series evolved from Kosuth's participation in a group exhibition in Linz, Austria, in 1992 based on the writings of Viennese philosopher Dr. Hans-Dieter Bahr. Bahr has written extensively on the conceptual problems of the guest and the foreigner in society. His investigations resonated with Kosuth's self-reflective and almost anthropological approach in his own work. The concept of insiders versus outsiders loosely manifests itself in each work in the series, which addresses a specific architectural context and uses textual material related to that context. Kosuth's subjects have ranged from Goethe's stay in Italy to the relationship between the Maori and New Zealanders of Caucasian descent. The Amfar installation was commissioned as a tribute to supporters of the organization, and was donated by Kosuth.

Founded in 1985 as a nonprofit, grant-giving agency dedicated to the support of AIDS research, prevention, treatment, education and related public policy, Amfar has been enormously successful at raising money for research grants from a wide variety of arts, theater, scientific and business communities, as well as from individual donors. (1) Kosuth has been involved since 1987 with Art Against AIDS, an organization that has raised millions of dollars through benefits, auctions, publicity campaigns and donations; Amfar is a major recipient. He began work on this project armed with a thorough knowledge of the complexity of the issues.

One of the first Conceptual artists, Kosuth has long been concerned with the mechanics of meaning in language, and particularly how signification relies on context. His earliest work combined an object, a photograph of it and a printed dictionary definition. Later, he dispensed with objects and photographs and concentrated on language itself, enlarging words and their dictionary definitions in black-and-white photostats. He later expanded on these ideas in investigative installations and public works. In 1990, in response to the growing national controversy over public funding of "obscene" works of art, Kosuth created The Brooklyn Museum Collection: The Play of the Unmentionable [see A.i.A., Jan. '91], which juxtaposed works of art that had been, at one time or another, condemned as objectionable, with quotations about the role of art in society. In a recent exhibition at the MIT List Visual Art Center in Cambridge, Mass., Kosuth extended his investigations of the functions of art and language outside the gallery space and into a larger cultural framework by placing texts in a variety of sites where the public might encounter them, from the outside wall of a theater to a public-television channel, the MIT Web site and a screen of a local movie theater.

In the Amfar installation, Kosuth has brilliantly combined his ideas about language, naming and images to create a complicated and moving visual tribute to people who have been involved with Amfar--donors, volunteers, scientists, advocates and people living with HIV/AIDS. The installation is also a visual and textual history of both Amfar and the AIDS epidemic.

It begins in the boardroom with what appears to be a bright-colored, abstract mural on three walls. Actually, the three images are a combination of computer-generated graphic representations of the AIDS virus glycoprotein and scanning-electron micrographs of HIV on a cell surface, all vastly enlarged and colorized to show what happens to the human cell when the AIDS virus attaches to it. The colors and shapes are enticingly beautiful, regardless of the sinister activity they describe.

Superimposed on these images and continuing as the piece progresses through the corridors is a time line that notes the beginning of the AIDS epidemic and traces its appalling trajectory. It also highlights in words the group's achievements, key events and personalities that have shaped the fight against AIDS. The time line is punctuated by yearly markers indicating the cumulative number of AIDS-related deaths in the U.S. Scattered among the names are black-and-white archival photographs documenting the people and events.

Kosuth establishes a hierarchy of names relating to Amfar and the AIDS crisis by using different type sizes, italics and boxes. A frieze at the top of the walls repeats the names of the founding, former and current members of Amfar's board. Italicization indicates individuals, foundations and corporations that have given in-kind donations. A name appearing in large white letters within a black box indicates a gift of $1 million; its appearance five times over the spread of the installation signifies $5 million.