VANGARDIST Mag # 51 Hero Issue (Deutsch)

#52 / 05 / 2015

# h i v h e ro e s

HIV doesn’t make t h e n e w s a n ym o r e T o day, h o w e v e r , yo u h av e t h e c h a n c e t o ta k e t h e i s s u e i n t o yo u r o w n h a n d s .

Th at ’s b e c au s e w e b e l i e v e i t n e e d s t o b e ta l k e d a b o u t m u c h m o r e .

T h i s m o n t h w e IN J E C T E D T HE Va n ga r d i s t p r es s es w i t h t h e b lo o d o f t h r e e HI V - p o s i t i v e d o n o rs .

A l i m i t e d e d i t i o n o f 2 5 0 0 c o p i es o f t h e m aga z i n e wa s p r i n t e d w i t h i t. ( To s e e h o w i t h a p p e n e d v i s i t w w w.va n ga r d i s t.c o m) T h i s c o p y, h o w e v e r , wa s n ot. Ev e n i f i t w e r e , t h e r e wo u l d s t i l l b e n o r i s k to yo u o r yo u r f r i e n d s – J u s t l i k e t h e r e i s n o da n g e r i n s h a k i n g t h e h a n d o f a n H I V - p o s i t iv e p e r s o n .

T h e v i r u s c a n o n ly b e s p r e a d t h r o u g h s e x ua l c o n tact, n e e d l es o r l i v e b lo o d e n t e r i n g o p e n wo u n d s .

Y e t p e o p l e a r e s t i l l a f r a i d o f g e tt i n g c lo s e to t h o s e l i v i n g w i t h HI V b e c au s e t h e y s t i l l d o n ’ t k n o w e n o u g h a b o u t i t: It i s b e c au s e o f t h es e f e a rs t h at n ot a l l c o p i es o f t h i s e d i t i o n were printed in such a bold manner.

Th e s t i g m a s u r r o u n d i n g H I V c o n t i n u e s t o b e a t o p i c t h at c a n n o t b e i g n o r e d.

D es p i t e t h i r t y y e a rs o f c a m pa i g n i n g to h a lt i t s s p r e a d, t h e e p i d e m i c c o n t i n u es to g r o w.

In Europe and C e ntr al Asia , the re we re 80 pe r c e nt m o r e n e w c a s e s o f H I V i n 2 013 c o m pa r e d t o 2 0 0 4 .* B e c au s e HI V i s ta l k e d a b o u t l es s , t h e l es s o f a da n g e r i t s e e ms , a n d t h e m o r e r i s ks p e o p l e ta k e .

A l s o, b e c au s e i t ' s ta l k e d a b o u t l es s , t h e m o r e s h a m e f u l i t s e e ms to t h o s e w h o c a r ry t h e v i r u s .

To day, s o m e p e o p l e w i t h HI V a r e c o n c e r n e d a b o u t a l i e n at i n g t h e i r lov e d o n es .

Ot h e rs wo r ry a b o u t lo s i n g t h e i r j o b s i f a n e m p loy e r l e a r n s o f t h e i r i l l n es s .

S o m e c o u n t r i es e v e n c r i m i n a l i z e HI V - p o s i t i v e p e o p l e .

T h es e f e a rs s to p IN D I V I D UALS FROM SEEKING t h e s u p p o r t t h e y n e e d.

F o r a l l t h es e r e a s o n s , VANGAR D IS T wo u l d l i k e to

r e i g n i t e t h e c o n v e r s at i o n s a b o u t H I V – f r e e f ro m ta b o o a n d d i s c r i m i n at i o n . * WHO R e g i o n a l O f f i c e f o r E u r o p e a n d E C D C - J o i n t P r e s s R e l e a s e : “ E u r o p e ’ s HI V r e s p o n s e fa l l s s h o r t i n c u r b i n g e p i d e m i c : 8 0 % m o r e n e w HI V c a s e s c o m pa r e d to 2 0 0 4 .”, 2 7 NO V EMBER 2 014

L e a d i n g by e x a m p l e , w e c a n a l l b e c o m e c h a m p i o n s by i m p r ov i n g t h e l i v es o f t h o s e l i v i n g w i t h HI V a n d t h o s e l i v i n g w i t h t h e da n g e r o f c o n t r act i n g t h e v i r u s .

O u r p u b l i c at i o n w i l l c a r ry t h i s m es s ag e ov e r t h e c o m i n g m o n t h s AN D GI V E I T PAR T I C ULAR AT T EN T ION IN T HIS # H I V HEROES E D I T ION .

By b u y i n g t hi s m aga z i n e yo u H AV E ALREADY BECOME a h e r o.

A l l d o n at i o n s r a i s e d w i l l g o t o o r ga n i z at i o n s f o c u s e d o n e q ua l o p p o r t u n i t i e s f o r t h o s e l ivi n g w i t h H I V, f r o m fa i r e r acc es s to h e a lt h c a r e to c o m b att i n g s o c i a l p r ej u d i c e a n d d i s c r i m i n at i o n .

E n c o u r ag e o t h e r s t o a l s o b e c o m e h e ro e s by s h a r i n g t hi s e d i t i o n a n d m a k i n g t h e i r ow n s tat e m e n t aga i n s t H I V s t i g m a .

H ELP BR I NG US CLOSER TO A WORLD FREE FROM T H E SOC I AL ST I GMA OF H I V BY SEARC H I NG FOR OUR H AS H TAG AND L I K I NG T H E H I V H EROES FACEBOOK PAGE .​

By ta k i n g u p t hi s i s s u e , a n d by h e l p i n g t o k e e p i t o n p e o p l e ’s m i n d s , it is quite possible – g iv e n c u r r e n t m e d i c a l a dva n c e s – t h at o n e day H I V/A I DS m ay n e v e r m a k e t h e p r e s s aga i n .

M a k e a d o n at i o n a n d g e t a l i m i t e d e d i t i o n c o p y o f Va n ga r d i s t p r i n t e d w i t h t h e b lo o d o f HI V - p o s i t i v e p e o p l e . o r s i m p ly c h e c k o u t t h i s d i g i ta l e d i t i o n to s e e h o w t h e i s s u e wa s m a d e .

w w w. H I V HEROES .o rg

20 Jahre Forschung 32 Patente weltweit* N째1 Konzentrat** * F체r ULTIMUNE, gesamt zum 1. August 2014. ** Shiseido Verk채ufe.

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Become an HI Hero!

Now, the issue is in your hands ... almost.

Get a copy of the limited edition, printed with the blood of HIV+ people, and support our cause.

to find your exclusive copy, check out

w w w . v a n g a r d i s t . c o m / P R I NT

Get the Print Issue >>

Become an HI Hero!

Now, the issue is in your hands,... almost.

Get a copy of the limited edition and support our cause.

to find your exclusive copy, check out

w w w . v a n g a r d i s t . c o m / P R I NT

Get the Print Issue >>

Imprint: Publisher: VANGARDIST MEDIA GmbH Editor-in-Chief and Management: Julian Wiehl Copy Editor: Klemens Gindl Editorial staff: Julian Behrenbeck, Klemens Gindl, Hendrik H., Philipp Spiegel, Tobias Seebacher, Wiltrut Stefanek, Wyndham Mead Illustration: Magdalena Weyrer Photography: André Gehrmann, Daniel Gottschling, Darius Lucaciu, Shlomit Migay, Sam Scott Schiavo Translation: Lisa Voigt Proofreading: Jay Bannmuller, Erin Troseth Production & Styling: Mirza Sprecakovic Production assistant: Victoria Abulesz, Vladimir Satric, Liqiao Zhu Graphics and Layout: Magdalena Weyrer Graphics assistant: Julian Behrenbeck Editing: Cristóbal Hornito Making of: Tamara Pichler Sincere thanks to all who, through their tireless efforts, have helped to produce this very special edition.

VANGARDIST MEDIA GmbH Mariahilfer Straße 49 Top 15 1060 Vienna office@vangardist.com

Editorial Dear VANGARDISTS! Welcome to the #HIVHEROES Edition!

Yes, we've printed 2,500 copies of this edition using ink mixed with the blood of HIV-positive people, and no, you can't get infected from it, but beware: Your thoughts might get stimulated.

The #HIVHEROES Edition is our statement to fight the stigma that many people living with HIV face day after day. Overcoming the fear of talking about HIV or telling somebody that you’re positive still takes bravery. So with this issue we want to unlock the Hero in every one of us.

If you’re holding the "infected" print edition in your hands right now, you’ll get into contact with HIV like never before. You might have been embarrassed at first. And as you opened the wrapper you might have felt a bit of that fear mentioned above. As the blood used as ink has been sterilized by pasteurization, the virus is unquestionably dead. But it will make you reflect on HIV and you will think differently afterwards. Because now the issue is in your hands.

Personally, I’ve always been afraid of becoming infected with HIV, and in thinking about this, something very important came to my mind: I didn’t fear the health issues as much as I feared a life of social exclusion and the absence of intimate contact with anybody.

Sadly, rejection and stigma are created by society, which means by every one of us. So it is up to us, the HIV-negative ones, to speak out about this topic. We can start a conversation and make our statement without fearing any negative consequences. The easier it is to live with HIV, the more people will dare to get themselves tested and seek medical treatment, and the more lives can be saved this way.

We need to take responsibility and be the Heroes we always wanted to be.

Thank you for joining our cause!

Julian Wiehl and the progressive VANGARDIST team

SHOOTINGS

topics facade

red

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radar

wrath of god facade

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COVERY STOR

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i am not a terrorist 32

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And why it prevents us from talking about HIV

vangART

deep throat An interview with Filius de Lacroix

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INDEX EDITORIAL facade

Editor's Choice

15 96

Style tip

the campaign

foR the good cause 46 Diary of a hard fight

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Shopzone

132

conchita's Vienna

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advertorial

A walk around town with Austria’s most important voice the campaign

Hard facts about HIV 66 the campaign

the blood donors the campaign

when do I tell her?

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The implications of an HIV-positive hetero life

advertorial

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humans need heroes 92 Destination Madrid

nev

ver miss an issue! sign in for free >>

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w r at h of God And why it prevents us f r o m ta l k i n g a b o u t H I V

Text: klemens gindl illustration: Magdalena Weyrer

HIV is a punishment from God—if you believe in him that is. Or rather, if you’re the kind of person who believes in what the god depicted by the Bible represents: an archaic, patriarchal idea of society carried over from the distant past into our 21st century. For everyone else, HIV is a disease, admittedly a fucked up one, but a mere illness nonetheless. We might all be quick to think that as privileged, well informed representatives of the so-called First World, we’re above these types of stone-age ideas and know that of course

HIV is an illness like any other, and we congratulate anyone who truly and honestly believes this. Apparently not too many people share this belief though, because even in this day and age, people who test HIV positive are confronted by a serious social stigma, and yes, this is also the case in Western countries. So in view of this fact, we decided to do a bit of research into questions like how it’s possible even for nonreligious people to think like conservative pricks and how this is linked to the fact that HIV/AIDS remains a taboo topic.

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Th e s c o u r g e of humanity

Let’s start by saying this: For a considerable part of humanity, the effect of HIV/AIDS does indeed have apocalyptic dimensions. In Africa, the most direly affected continent, Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome is responsible for the death of entire communities, and we’re not talking about in the 1990s, or 30 years from now, but right this moment! South of the Sahara more than 22 million people are HIV positive, but it can be assumed that there’s a considerable number of unreported cases. In countries like Botswana, Namibia or South Africa, almost a quarter of the population is affected by the disease and, unfortunately, most are from younger generations, less than 60 years old. Forget Ebola, even forget all the wars being waged from Donetsk to Aleppo and from Kirkuk to Benghazi at the moment, because after hunger and typhus, HIV is probably still the worst scourge of present-day humanity. Currently, only Western societies are exempt from

this truth, but that doesn’t mean we’re forever safe from this threat. Because although we should be humbly grateful for our privileged situation in light of how infinitely vast the suffering is in developing and emerging countries, we in the West still haven’t conquered the underlying cause of the problem of HIV/AIDS—one that doesn’t have a medical solution, but is instead deeply rooted in our society.

D o o m s d ay s c e n a r i o

Apart from a lack of material resources to fight and prevent the virus, the reason for the epidemic’s unparalleled spread amongst the poorest of the world has always been the fact that this disease is something that’s not talked about because it’s still treated as a taboo: because for many people, what shouldn’t exist simply cannot possibly exist. The fear of massive discrimination and stigmatization understandably reduces people’s willingness to be tested, which is especially damaging since, in order to curb the pandemic, it is vital to deal with the disease openly.

But while in the West, the doomsday scenarios hawked by the fearmongering mass media in the 80s and 90s led to relatively effective education on this topic, in the Third World, HIV has been able to spread almost uncontrollably over two decades. In Western countries, HIV has always been a tricky topic as well though, and the disease still comes attached with a certain

stigma; even though from a medical viewpoint it’s not actually that big of a deal anymore, people suffering from it will still think twice before openly talking about it. And so while we’re congratulating ourselves on being so super-educated on the topic, we tend to forget that all the knowledge in the world isn’t actually worth much if you have to keep silent about it. The fact

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is that after overcoming our doomsday fears, recent years have seen the return of a certain tabooing trend in AIDSrelated matters. Some reasons behind this may be from ignorance, because we think HIV is no longer relevant, or may be from the fact that we’ve gotten used to it and look to something more spectacular and new like Ebola to be scared of. The main reason, however, still is that it’s a disease we’ve never actually felt comfortable talking about.

ally mean foundations. Because even though the established order has often taken quite an existential battering as a result of the 20th century’s major new occurrences like industrialization, capitalism, liberalism and the sexual revolution, it would still be an illusion to think that we have managed to overcome 5,000 years of patriarchy in just a few decades. As patriarchy is at the core of all conservative concepts of society, the sexual morals that come with it are the ultimate condition for its existence.

5 , 0 0 0 y e a r s o f pat r i a r c h y

It might be asking a bit much to expect a radical change in social structures within just a few decades, but one thing is certain: The stigmatization of HIV/AIDS predominantly has to do with sexual morals, which explains why it’s still such a taboo topic. Consequently, both this illness and the question of how we should deal with it have the power to shake society to its very foundations. This may sound like nothing more than a casually made claim, but in this case you better believe it: When we say “foundations” we re-

B ibl e , Sh a k e s p e a r e , G a m e o f Th r o n e s

How come though? Male rule is far from being a law of nature. Quite the opposite actually. It’s dependent on cleverly devised cultural techniques and, more than anything, on fairly strict regulations of what’s sexually permitted and what becomes ostracized. And this has one very simple reason: For a long time in our civilization’s history it was basically impossible to deliver safe proof of paternity, which, in a society based on the hereditary transmission of

power, status, wealth and identity from a male to his male heir, is absolutely essential. Anyone who’s ever read the Bible or Shakespeare, or watched Game of Thrones, knows the implications that being born a bastard used to have.

While the mother was nearly always easy to identify, our sperm donor could be any random bloke; the only way to ensure some certainty on these matters was the implementation of strict

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behavioural laws and to inflict severe punishment for any kind of promiscuity. How tightly this was linked to the whole patriarchy issue can, for example, be read in the works of the Roman historian Tacitus who, in his famous Germania, delivers quite a precise description of the social conditions the Teutons lived in. In their society, males had no real tasks other than fighting in wars, everyone was free to cavort and copulate like there was no tomorrow, and women had children by lots of different men—which was fine because they were the ones that led the clans, as status and power were passed on through the female bloodline.

God equals society

Right now you’re probably thinking that all this sounds like not much more than a bunch of made-up rules, but it’s

a fact that established moral concepts regarding sexuality—ranging from monogamy and faithfulness to the rejection of sexual variations like anal sex and fellatio, as well as any form of homoeroticism—are not simply rules, but moral questions that are religiously motivated. Anyone who, from a rational viewpoint, would definitely reject such ideas but sometimes still experiences a dim feeling of moral turpitude when excessively engaging in random sex knows what we’re talking about: the pang of conscience felt by a sodomist, formerly referred to as a sinner, against his better judgment. This perception, however, is only based on the “enlightened deception” that we have to differentiate between morals and religion on the one hand and rationally devised laws and rules on the other, when in truth they’re one and the same.

As early as the 19th century, academic scholars of religion declared that when we say God, what we actually mean is society, the obvious principle behind this strategy being to lend some kind of transcendental and spiritual legiti-

mization to all the invented rules that sustain the established (male) order— or in short: to convert these rules into eternal law that cannot simply be annulled by new generations.

Th e s t i g m a of promiscuity

To this day, despite all their heartfelt attempts at progress, even the most liberal societies continue to be affected by the old sexual morals because these codes are part of the roots of cultures which, as we all know, consider themselves firmly anchored in the Judaeo-Christian tradition, but in fact, they even pre-date it. To put it more crudely: A large part of civilization’s values dates back to those of tribally organized shepherd communities in the Bronze Age whose timeless representative figure was a punitive male god who saw to it that the tribe’s (male) leaders all got what they understood to be their (god-given) right. After millennia of this kind of tyranny, we suddenly go and invent the pill and paternity tests, kick off the

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sexual revolution, fuck around like rabbits for about two decades and then bam! This stupid virus decides to jump from chimpanzees to us and ends the party. And before you know it, all the complexes we thought long gone are back with a vengeance because one thing became clear pretty quickly: HIV is mainly contracted through sex—and not the kind you have with just one partner your whole life. If we follow the logic of patriarchal morality, HIV/AIDS can be seen as a stigma: the disease as a mark, a badge of shame and—in a sense—punishment for a promiscuous lifestyle. As in: “If you had been a good boy and lived by the established bourgeois rules, this would not have happened to you.” Consequently, from a patriarchal viewpoint, the disease simply has to be a manifestation of God’s wrath; also in a more figurative, secular sense, because after all, “God” is nothing other than society’s personified order.

T h e s h a d o w s o f t h e pa s t

This, of course, explains the initial stigmatization of HIV as the “gay plague”.

The discrimination against homosexuality by the conservative mainstream

is mainly rooted in the fact that, for its members, the gay lifestyle represents the essence of promiscuity and, as such, a constant threat to traditional male rule. As a paradoxical side-effect of this, nowadays it’s even harder for many heterosexuals to deal with the social dimensions of this disease than it is for homosexuals, since the latter had to learn long ago how to live outside the patriarchal mainstream. Obviously we’ve left the 19th century behind and not all of us see HIV as a god-inflicted punishment. Yet a certain echo of this set of values still rings through modern Western society though, whispering that it’s your own fault if you contract the virus. And since, culturally, we’re still miles away from actually being able to openly talk about any form of sexuality, the whole HIV topic still carries the stigma of something “dirty” that no one wants to talk about—because we still haven’t fully liberated ourselves from some ancient set of moral values.

HIV as a social gauge

We live in 2015 and it’s fair to say that our Western societies are more or less on the right track when it comes to shedding the patriarchal tradition.

Having said that, we’re still a far cry from shedding it completely.

At least in those parts of the world blessed by a certain standard of wealth, HIV/AIDS has become medically manageable and has developed

from a certain death sentence into more of a chronic disease. In turn, this has led to the widespread idea that it’s something that no longer needs to be talked about. In fact, most of us are glad that this somehow disreputable topic is finally off the table, but

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fighting, but at the same time we’re aware that there’s not much use in playing the suppressed minority here. For this reason, our magazine deliberately treats an open attitude to all things sexual as a given that is befitting to our modern times, just as we regard openness regarding gender stereotypes.

We’ve decided to boldly expect overall equality because this type of selfconfidence is much more efficient than self-victimizing whingeing will ever be.

And that’s why the VANGARDIST is organizing the #HIVHEROES Campaign: Th e # H I V H e r o e s E d i t i o n : because we need an open discourse t h a t ’ s w h y ! about HIV/AIDS without all the moral At the VANGARDIST we regard our- baggage. selves as a progressive medium committed to proclaiming a lifestyle far removed from all kinds of patriarchal restraints. We regard all forms of sexual preferences—whether they’re homo or hetero—as completely natural and equally valid. A large part of the content of our men’s magazine is gay and so are a considerable number of the people involved in its making. Because of this, we are used to standing up and that’s a big mistake, because the only efficient way to counteract this problem is an open and ongoing discourse about it. Everyone who doesn’t know what it is or that they have it will most likely unwittingly pass it on to someone else. Simple preaching doesn’t help though, because the problem is rooted much more deeply. In some way, how we deal with HIV/AIDS functions like a gauge that measures to what extent a society has managed to liberate itself from patriarchal rule.

P u l l ov e r Dy n m e n s w e a r , l e at h e r to p M a r i n a H o e r m a n s e d e r

S h i r t V i v i e n n e W e s t w o o d, b r o o c h M a r e k o wa , B r i e f s S t y l i s t ‘ s o w n , l e at h e r b e lt Marina Hoermanseder

T o p D y n m e n s w e a r , H e a dp i e c e M a r e k o w a , l e g g i n g s s t y l i s t ' s o w n

c a p K o l o s S c h i l l i n g, c oat L e n i L a n d s g e s e l l

L e at h e r To p M a r i n a H o e r m a n s e d e r , R i n g M a r e k o wa , S h o r t s S t y l i s t ‘ s o w n , L e g g i n g s M i r z a Sp r e c a k o v i c

L o o k E m p o r i o A r m a n i , w a t c h Ad i d a s , S o c k s F a l k e

s h i r t Dy n m e n s w e a r , J e a n s c u s to m m a d e , L e at h e r b e lt M a r i n a H o e r m a n s e d e r , b ac k pac k L e n i L a n d s g e s e l l

s u i t S t r e l l s o n , s h i r t M i r z a Sp r e c a k o v i c , b a c k p a c k V i v i e n n e W e s t w o o d , w a t c h D i e s e l

L e at h e r s h i r t M a r i n a H o e r m a n s e d e r

l e at h e r j ac k e t E m p o r i o A r m a n i

fashion editor Mirza Sprecakovic mirzasprecakovic.com photography S a m S c o t t S c h i av o s a m s c o t t s c h i av o. c o m Grooming Zolt谩n T贸th models K r i s t o b a l & J P, S a m t h e A g e n c y Mark, Art Models fa s h i o n a s s i s ta n t Vladimir Satric

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making of

editing: Crist贸bal Hornito I n t e r p r e t e r / T r a c k : MINDR X K - ' L i f e i s a p a r t y '

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46 the campaign

for the good cause diary of a hard fi g ht text: Hendrik H. printing press photos: Daniel Gottschling cat Foto: Jonathan Teo

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Felix Nowack & Julian Wiehl at Donau Forum Druck Ges.m.b.H.

Fearlessness is not a sign of bravery but of foolhardiness.

You can’t become a hero before you confront your fears and overcome them.

Once you’ve mustered that much strength, even failure becomes something noble.

These or similar thoughts frequently came to mind whenever the road from our initial idea for the #HIVHEROES Edition to its final realisation got particularly bumpy. You, dear readers, who are now holding this VANGARDIST issue in your hands, have accepted the challenge. You have overcome your fears and, by opening this magazine’s wrapping, have sent a signal. But until this was finally possible, we came across quite a number of people who weren’t quite as brave…

A m e e t i n g w i t h fa r r e a c hi n g c o n s e q u e n c e s

It’s one thing to come up with a good idea. To carry through with it, though, is a very different matter. It was actually Raffaele Arturo, former head of Publicis Austria and close confidante of our sales and marketing team who came up with this daring plan at a meeting set to discuss the question of what in the world we could write about on the occasion of this year’s Life Ball and upcoming Eurovision Song Contest. An issue printed with HIV-positive blood?

What a mad idea! An idea that didn’t

just pop into Raffaele’s head as if sent

by Apollo’s marketing muse though.

From his time a few years ago at Publicis, he remembered an advertising campaign for a client that they had contemplated running on the occasion of the Life Ball which had never actually been carried out. For one quite obvious reason: It was simply too wild. The thing is though, words like “mad” and “wild” quickly trigger a certain itch and urge in our Chief Editor, so that anyone watching him while Raffaele presented this idea could detect a gentle glow on the boss’ attentive face.

A r a d i c a l pl a n it, even though this is virtually impos-

The concept was simple and powerful.

We would confront the increasing marginalisation of the HIV/AIDS discourse and make people aware of how social prejudices against people with HIV are still pretty rampant in today’s society.

Our main focus was to be on the issue of social exclusion that many HIVpositive people who openly deal with their situation continue to face, simply because the disease still triggers all kinds of irrational fears of contracting

sible through ordinary social contact.

Our plan: to find three people infected with the virus who should be as different from each other as possible as well as be willing to donate their blood for a good cause. This blood, after being treated in a laboratory to exclude any possible risk of infection, would then be mixed with printer ink to produce an ad that would, in essence, contain the following information: This ad has been printed with HIV infected blood.

HIV doesn’t make the news anymore.

Now the issue is in your hands.

Raffaele also told us that after the people at Publicis in charge of the campaign had quashed the idea, Jason Romeyko, Creative Director of Saatchi & Saatchi Geneva, which in turn is a subsidiary of the Publicis Groupe, had continued to toy with it. And then he asked us whether this wouldn’t make for an interesting campaign for the VANGARDIST. P u r e f at e

While our Chief Editor’s ears had already pricked up during the description of the idea, when he heard the name Romeyko, a wide grin spread over his face, because—what a nice coincidence—Jason is a personal friend of the VANGARDIST in general and of Julian and Carlos (the founders and editors of this magazine) in particular. At a time when their career ladders weren’t being climbed quite as ambitiously as they are now, these two would regularly visit Jason in Berlin. Probably mostly to party, but also, whenever Jason was sent off around the world, to look after Jason’s cat, Bauer. We should probably mention here that Bauer isn’t just some ordinary cat. He’s a muse, and

in that role one could even venture to say that, next to Karl Lagerfeld’s Choupette and the Clinton family’s former First Cat, Socks, he’s one of the three most important cats in the world and, just like his famous colleagues, has his own Facebook profile.

At l u n c h w i t h S a a t c hi & S a a t c hi

The unexpected appearance of this personal contact meant we didn’t even have to steal the idea! Without further ado, a call was made and a few minutes later an excited Jason Romeyko had gladly accepted our offer, saying that this campaign was something he had already felt strongly about from the very beginning. Just a few weeks later, we had lunch in Vienna with Jason and his producer, Emma Jenkins, and even before we were able to prime them with alcohol, maybe even before dessert was served—which, on a side note, no one apart from Emma and this article’s author actually touched, because the boys spend too much time looking after their figures—the whole thing was underway and Saatchi & Saatchi had promised to put everything at our disposal that they had already done for the campaign.

0002

Bauer Romeyko

L e g a l g r e y a r e a s nor anyone else had ever mentioned

A few days later, a legal opinion by a US law firm written in 2011 and commissioned by the client the campaign had originally been devised for landed on our Chief Editor’s desk. In it, the legal experts succinctly recommended dropping such an HIV campaign idea, as the consequences were not predictable and there was no way of knowing where the ad might eventually end up. Although we were certainly a bit surprised about receiving this legal opinion without any further comment, and by the fact that neither Jason

its existence, we decided not to be put off by this. After all, it was just an overly-cautious recommendation, the Publicis client who had commissioned it wasn’t exactly of Benetton calibre, and anyway, everything had gone so smoothly up to this point, and so on and so forth. Since we didn’t want to ignore the legal opinion completely though, our Chief Editor forwarded it to Raffaele’s brother, Claudio, a good personal friend as well as advocate and Honorary Consul of the Republic of San Marino in Vienna.

E x il e i n San Marino

This had been a cunning move because we figured that, should his Excellency the Honorary Consul give us his legal go-ahead after coming to the conclusion we thought he would come to, namely that the guys at Publicis were a bunch of cowards, then if the whole thing did for some reason go tits up in the end, he would probably feel so guilty about it that he’d have to grant the VANGARDIST’s entire editorial team exile in San Marino.

Unfortunately, such plans fell through pretty quickly, because one week lat-

er Raffaele arrived at the office with bad news from San Marino. We were informed that the whole thing was indeed quite tricky, beginning with the problem that different countries had different laws, which would be an issue insofar as the campaign was intended to be launched internationally. A call made to Jason in Geneva didn’t solve this problem either, because all we learned was that he was already familiar with this legal opinion and that as a result of it, the printing office commissioned to do the job for the first campaign attempt had refused to “infect” their printing presses with the virus.

A c a m pa i g n i s b o r n

Faced with these facts, we almost got cold feet like everyone else before us had, but then came salvation in the form of a brilliant idea: The main argument used in the legal opinion was that the distribution of an ad appearing in different print mass media would be impossible to control. If, however, the VANGARDIST as a magazine were figured as the responsible body initiating the campaign’s actions, it would be able to print only a limited edition of the magazine with ink that actually contained blood and just use ordinary ink on the rest, and that way we would retain relative control over the distribution of the blood mags. In addition, we came up with the idea to cover the “contaminated� issues in plastic wrap to make people aware of what they were about to purchase and make it their active decision to unwrap and touch the actual magazine. The act of unwrapping it would thus become a statement and send out the message that, in order to read this issue, you had to be brave. And with this, the #HIVHEROES Campaign was born.

Th e u n k n o w n residual risk

Our new Heroes Campaign plan, involving a limited running of magazines sealed in plastic that would challenge recipients to make a statement by actively unwrapping and touching them, was then sent to San Marino once more, along with a request for a second legal opinion. And this time, the response was guardedly positive.

It stated that even though the Consul couldn’t vouch for the rest of the world, according to German and Austrian law, our campaign wouldn’t pose any legal problems. And since by that point we’d swaggered so much about heroism, we decided to just go ahead with it and face the potential risks.

D e f i n i t e ly n o t s t a n d a r d o p e r at i n g p r o c e d u r e

So now that we were willing to assume the possible risks, all we had to do was convince others of how noble our campaign was. Since something like this had never been done before, we had no standard operating procedure to fall back on. As a first step, we had to find a laboratory that would be willing and able to treat the donated

blood to rule out any possible risk of infection, and of course none of the laboratories we contacted were willing to do it. Through one of our boss’ old childhood friends, we finally managed to establish contact with the medical faculty at the University of Innsbruck and, after some negotiation, we had them where we wanted: The guys from Tyrol would extract and pasteurise the blood and then submit it to processing in an autoclave set to “biosafety level 3”. After that, we were told, you could basically drink it.

Ol d l o v e n e v e r d i e s

The second hurdle we had to overcome was to find a printing office willing to allow the blood to come in contact with its printing presses, but all the big ones turned us down. Our last chance was a small print shop under the name of Donau Forum Druck, who we had already worked with on our very first print issue. Its owner did express some reluctance at first, because he didn’t want to force his staff to participate in our stunt, but in the end he offered to do the job himself

in one long nightshift. We will be eter- with the condition and could show the nally grateful to him for his heroic act. world how that’s done, but also someone who found this hard to do and Fi n d i n g d o n o r s could show the world why openness The third and trickiest task would be to continues to be such a challenge. find three people who would be willing to donate their HIV-positive blood Into an unknown to help our campaign. What made our f u t u r e : p o s t s c r ip t job even harder was that our potential Today it’s April 9th 2015, and we’ve candidates had to be as different from found our donors. Tomorrow they’ll each other as possible, meaning we put their blood at the disposal of the had to find someone who dealt openly medical faculty at the University of Inns-

bruck. In our #HIVHEROES Edition, which will head to print in four days, you’ll be able to find out all about who they are and what they do. While I’m typing these last lines into my computer, next door our Chief Editor is sitting in his office full of vim. When you, dear readers, are holding this VANGARDIST issue in your hands, we’ll already know whether we’ve achieved our goal or if all hell has broken loose. Or, who knows, maybe both will happen at the same time. You have to overcome your fears to deem yourself brave—because anything else would be nothing but foolhardy. So long...

58 the campaign

the bl o o d donors Photos: André Gehrmann, Daniel Gottschling

HIV can affect anyone. But how a positive diagnosis affects individuals' lives is very much dependent on their social environment. While some people are in a position to openly deal with the challenges of HIV without having to fear severe discrimination, for others, “outing” themselves would be equivalent to social suicide.

The heroes of this issue are named Philipp, Wyndham and Wiltrut.

The blood they donated has become a part of this magazine. The three of them all have one thing in common: They’re HIV positive.

Their stories, however, could not be more different.

Philipp Spiegel age

Philipp Spiegel is an alias. The person behind it prefers to stay anonymous. He is the author of the article ”When Do I Tell Her?” which you can find in this very issue. " Wh o a r e y o u ? "

There is not much to say about me at the given time.

All there is to know is that I am male, heterosexual and HIV positive. " Wh y a r e y o u d o i n g t hi s ? "

Due to the fact that the infection is rather recent, I am still struggling with this new impact on my life.

I am working on a reassessment of myself: of who I am, of what I will do with this. In that sense, the preinfection life doesn’t matter very much. Because of the fear of implications both socially and professionally for myself, my friends and my family, I still prefer to stay anonymous.

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" Wh o a r e y o u ? "

Born in Stockton, California, Wyndham relocated to New York before leaving the Big Apple for freakin´ Berlin, where he’s been living and working the past four years. He got his diagnosis in October 2012; about a year later he “came out” as HIV positive with #CHANGETHEFACE, sharing his story to start conversations, change opinions, increase awareness and affect positive change in people. He is 26 years old.

I’d say I’m one of the most normal guys on the planet. I go to work, I see my friends, I’ve got some big dreams for my life that I hope to accomplish, and I try to keep in touch with my family as much as possible.

That being said, becoming HIV positive did have an effect on who I am: I am now more grateful for every experience I have, a characteristic that didn’t exist before. Think of how much happier we would all be if we woke up each day and said, “Thanks, life, you’re amazing.” That’s the person I strive to be. " Wh y a r e y o u d o i n g t hi s ? "

You know, the interesting thing is that I’ve become numb to the existence of “HIV stigma”. I’ve overcome most of the self-loathing and shame about my

62

own status, and forget sometimes that not everyone out there has had the same experience—that many people who are diagnosed aren’t able to process it. They keep secrets. They suffer.

Only to be fed by a globally universal fear and lack of understanding of HIV/ AIDS. Enjoying this confidence can be dangerous. Complacency is why we find ourselves—in 2015!—with increasing HIV infection rates in certain groups.

I’ve learnt that rather than becoming complacent in my own shame-free HIV-positive life, I must keep pushing forward, using my numbness to, or ignorance of, stigma for something bigger than me. I guess I do it because I’m not afraid. You’ll have to ask my parents about that fearlessness, as it’s been around far longer than I’ve been positive!

#CHANGETHEFACE is an attempt to make things better for “us” and start conversations that might help remove the stigma that absolutely still exists.

Us means other HIV-positive people.

Us means our families and friends. Us means low-risk groups that normally have few reasons to involve themselves with the topic of HIV. And why would I agree to have my blood used to print this magazine? Because holding my HIV in your hands is… well, even I am a bit shocked by the idea. Hopefully this act—a brave one for some, a non-issue for others— will create waves of conversation about HIV that I could never achieve by myself.

I’m doing this because I believe positive can be positive, and talking about HIV is the only way we can get more people to share that vision.

Wiltrut Stefanek Wiltrut has been living with her HIV-positive status for over twenty years.

After being diagnosed, she decided to openly deal with her condition and, as a result, founded the special interest group PULSHIV (www.pulshiv.at). She lives and works in Vienna and has a 24-year-old son.

AGE

45

64

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" Wh o a r e y o u ? "

HIV—three letters that turned my life upside down. Many people think I must be unhappy and despair over my life! Well, yes, I am indeed HIV positive, but primarily I am a mother, friend and partner.

For many years I had been leading a double life in a marriage conditioned by violence, but when I was diagnosed 20 years ago, I realized something had to change. The diagnosis was a wakeup call because it made me see how wonderful, but also how terribly short, (my) life can be.

In spite of my fears, I decided to openly share my HIV status because I don’t want to hide and have to lie about who I am, and so I founded PULSHIV in Vienna. It’s a special interest group organised by and for people with HIV/AIDS and their families. We provide information, counsel and guidance on HIV and often live with it ourselves. We’re people with and without HIV/AIDS who have taken their lives and futures into their own hands.

" Wh y a r e y o u d o i n g t hi s ? " cerns of people with HIV. In today’s

Today, I’m living a “normal” life. I work, meet friends, have hobbies and spend as much time as I can with my family.

My social circle is very important to me; they’re my friends through good and bad times. Over the years, I’ve come to realise how important it is to share your problems with others. Many people with HIV think that they’re alone with it, but that’s not true. Communication is essential to my quality of life.

I’ve been in a partnership with an HIVnegative man for many years. At the beginning, things were difficult because many people didn’t accept our relationship. We faced a lot of prejudices which, as far as I’m concerned, were completely unfounded because, against all odds, we’re still together today.

My son was six when he learned about my status—an age when he wasn’t yet able to really grasp what HIV meant— but with professional help he has learned to live with it. There were times when he talked about it a lot, but today I feel that HIV is as normal a part of life to him as is eating or taking a shower is.

It was my conscious choice to become an advocate for the interests and con-

society, this illness continues to be a taboo and, way too often, something people whisper about behind closed doors while the real problems are not discussed. The majority of HIV-positive people are scared to openly deal with their illness because, even in 2015, too many of us still harbour prejudices against HIV and fear coming in contact with it.

We finally have to get rid of the myths of the 80s and draw attention to all the positive changes instead. We have to put HIV on the agenda, raise awareness for this issue and strongly encourage communication on a sociopolitical level. That’s what drives me.

Through donating my blood to be part of the #HIVHEROES Edition, I want to make people understand that in dayto-day dealings with it, HIV poses no risk to anyone.

Living with HIV isn’t only taxing for those of us who have it. My true heroes are my son, my partner and my parents, who have always stood by me despite the struggles and supported me through some hard times. If we all managed to look beyond our own borders once in a while, we could all be heroes.

66 the campaign

Hard Facts about When do I risk catching the virus?

• Unprotected sex • Swallowing sperm or blood • Contact with fresh open wounds • Dirty needles (drug use)

Always use a condom • Don’t swallow sperm or blood •

What do I do if I’ve been exposed to a potential risk?

What’s the right way to protect myself?

• Consult a doctor within 1 or 2 hours • PEP (HIV post-exposure prophylaxis) within 48 hours • If sperm has entered your rectum, squat down and try to push it out

How do I behave around someone who’s HIV positive?

J ust like around anybody else.

Regular intake of meds • Regular medical checkups • Lifelong therapy • Life changes in terms of eating habits, • relationship habits, family and friends Condoms, condoms, condoms •

Common misconceptions about HIV

What will I be dealing with as someone living with HIV?

• Faeces, urine, sweat and saliva are infectious • Sperm should be removed with an anal douche • Even if HIV-positive people are receiving the right kind of treatment, transmission risk from sex with them is very high.

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84 the campaign

when do I tell her? ihr?

THE IMPLICATIONS OF AN

hiv-positive HETERO LIFE

Text Philipp spiegel

Being a heterosexual male with HIV is filled with emotional contradictions. Having been infected rather recently, my experiences concerning the matter are rather recent—and yet HIV has changed my life in numerous way. Ways I cannot even fathom just yet, for they are in constant flow. The difficulties and confrontations concerning this new life are numerous, and a lot of exploration is still necessary.

A new routine

My first months were the most difficult ones. Plagued with doubt about my actions, there were two main concerns that dominated my life. For one, the medical aspect. With knowledge and research, I could deal with my initial fears of this aspect rather quickly. Being born in the 80s, with the deadly threat of this disease being hammered into me from early on, properly done research soon alleviated my fear of a gruesome death. I informed myself, and still do, about therapies and medical

implications. Of course, the privilege of living in a Western country with excellent medical facilities and treatment options gives comfort and has made life almost normal. My gratefulness towards the amazing scientific and medical progress concerning this disease is never-ending. At least on a medical level, knowledge truly is power.

Knowing that this is something that will be there for the rest of my life has a strong impact. Death itself has become a constant. Not a threat, but “company�. An awareness of my own mortality,

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causing me to reflect on my own life and the decisions I have made so far.

A questioning of my goals and motivations that gives them a different meaning. For I feel I carry death in me.

And every single day, upon taking my medication, I am given the position to decide whether I want to live or die.

“Every single day, for the rest of my life.” That is a strong, and I confess, strange sentence to tell yourself. It is an experience very few people can share.

The medication itself is quite a tricky thing. On one hand, every day becomes an affirmation of life. But the implications of these blue pills are still very present—that I cannot take a break from them, that I’m not allowed to forget to take them and that long term consequences are still uncertain are ideas that cause constant pressure. The paranoia of forgetting to take the pills still grabs a hold of me. Not as much as in the first few months, but it still happens. A brief panic attack comes over me every so often, trying to remember whether I have taken them or not. Although two alarms annoyin-

gly remind me of them every single day, I always have to be very present in the moment when taking them.

These daily alarms accompany me—not necessarily as a dominating feature, but their presence adds a certain reminder of HIV in my life. Every trip I take to a different time zone must be thoroughly calculated for possible adjustments to my alarms. Often, I have to readjust my intake habits a few days in advance to not diminish the medication’s effect.

My poisonous self

The second thought that dominated my mind in the first weeks after my diagnosis was neither about my own psychological situation, nor was it about telling my friends and family. Although those two thoughts were very present, there was one other thing that caused me nightmares: the fear that I had infected someone else. The idea that my irresponsible behavior had potentially endangered someone else’s life kept me up at night. I was put in the situation of having to inform three wo-

men of my status. Simply having ”that” conversation is bad enough. Had I infected anyone else, I don’t know how I could have lived with the guilt. This situation would be even more difficult than it already is. After accompanying these women to their tests and finding out that I caused no further infections, I was filled with relief—but scared.

Even today, with my levels being far below the detection limit, and practically being unable to infect anyone via sexual contact, this fear remains, and it has had a great impact on my sex life. Ease and lightness have gone. For about a year, intimacy was more associated with stress, anxiety and fear than anything else. I trust medicine and my medication—but I’m not entirely sure how much I trust myself yet.

Herein lies one of the differences between homo- and heterosexuals. I don’t want to downplay the fear that homosexuals have when thinking about the consequences of infecting someone else—but those consequences for women are much greater than for men.

Simply the idea of bearing children has to be taken into consideration. The impact of infecting a woman is, in that sense, much greater than infecting a man.

I have my blood tested every three

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +

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months to monitor the medication and its impact on the virus and on my body, and to check on other potential threats. My virus load has been under the detection limit for nine months— meaning that I can even have uninfected children, and that even if I had unprotected sex, the chances of me infecting anyone would be minimal.

Should a condom burst, my doctor mentioned that he wouldn’t even see post-exposition prophylaxis as necessary. I am more informed of what I do and do not have than most other people out there. If I were to meet a woman, I would be her safest bet simply because of my knowledge of what I have and what I can and cannot do.

There are other STDs out there—ones which, because of my regular updates, I know I do not carry. How many people can say that of themselves? And yet the fear of infecting someone still

weighs on me. I carry a new sense of responsibility towards myself and especially towards others.

B a s ic k n o w l e d g e

The half-knowledge that other people, particularly in my generation, have acquired is one of the biggest difficulties when confronted with being HIV positive. Having grown up with the death of Freddy Mercury and films like Philadelphia, the predominant message associated with HIV in our teenage years was that it caused a long and horrible death. This imagery is still very present, especially in heterosexual surroundings. The difference between the knowledge of HIV within the heterosexual community, in comparison with the homosexual one, is massive. Being a heterosexual male, this came as surprising and slightly alienating. I’ve come to realize that the topic of HIV is simply more common in the homosexual community, where the perception of the disease—as well as its implications, treatments and consequences—is based on much greater knowledge than that found in heterosexual surroundings.

Topics like the “detection limit”, “post-exposition prophylaxis” and the

fact that HIV has become a chronic disease and not a deadly one are common knowledge to my homosexual friends but need a lot of explanation to my hetero ones.

The positive impact of the medication and its effects—such as being able to have children and to avoid infecting someone—have simply not widely reached the heterosexual community.

After my being infected led me to doing research, my reaction was similar to that of my friends. I'd simply had no idea of the medical advances that have happened in the last years. Surprised about the idea that having children isn’t even a problem anymore, a comforting “wow” was one of the first reactions I always received. And of course, a “thank god for medicine…”

Although my homosexual friends have been of great assistance, topics like having children, speaking to women about the virus and simply the “nonthreat” of the disease are things I have been struggling with by myself and have admittedly been very lonely with.

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Being openly HIV positive and heterosexual is kinda rare, and “outing” myself would cause more burden than relief at the moment. This half-knowledge of HIV makes me feel more secure to stay hidden—which is why I do not desire a portrait of me to accompany this article.

Revelations

HIV is a very intimate disease. Upon mentioning it, not only does it cause a shocked reaction from others, but it immediately gives them a glimpse into your sexual life. Any conversation about HIV is immediately associated with sex. It gives a person a view of your past. And the reaction upon confession tends to be a blank stare—and as we all know, stares can be louder than voices. The psychological burden, especially when it comes to meeting women, is heavy. Wearing a mask, concealing my disease in social surroundings, is becoming standard and upon meeting potential partners, the constant question in my head is: “When do I tell her?” There is no correct answer to that. Every time I meet someone, a new assessment is required. Legally, I am not obliged to tell

anyone about my status as long as I take safety precautions. And yet this status sharpens my senses about people. Ideas like “Is this short term?” and “Can I imagine this going somewhere?” are immediate thoughts that must be taken into consideration. Do I destroy the initial, passionate curiosity upon meeting someone by revealing my disease, or do I dare put myself in the situation of concealing this information altogether? I try to assess how the woman will react. I admit, I haven’t put myself into such a situation very often, since I fear the outcome. I’ve been trying to avoid it, for the only answer I can find at the moment is that I simply do not know. We all wear masks in social surroundings, but with HIV, carrying an additional one is the norm, due to fears of rejection, of discrimination, of seeing horror in the eyes of someone you desire—being seen as a threat from someone you could potentially love. Burdened by HIV, my approach to sexuality and feelings about myself are in constant flow. My heart is proud but it aches with rage. One moment I hate myself, am plagued with guilt and feel poisonous, and in the next moment I stand defiant and find a superhuman strength to rise above mys-

elf.

M y p e r s o n a l mi r r o r

rounded by. And when the depressive moments fade, the heights of life weaken my knees. A feeling of gratefulness towards life envelops me.

HIV is a disease that comes from one's behavior, not from circumstance. It is caused by your own actions. Unlike One of the hardest things to accept hereditary diseases, or bad luck, the is that certain things will never again only one to blame for being infected be the same in my life. A part of me died when I found is you and your own out about my infecactions. This, estion. In a way, I have pecially at the be“everything we to relearn certain ginning, makes you shut our eyes to, habits and tendenciquestion every deeverything we es—things that used cision you’ve made. to be easy are now My perception of from, everything completely different. my surroundings we deny, denigrate, And yet, HIV has giis also in constant or despise, ven me a new chanchange. Within the serves to ce: a reset button past year of being that allows me to reinfected, my prioriexamine my choices ties have been altein the end.” in life. There is a cerred. Certain friends h e n r y mi l l e r tain rebirth associatisimply aren’t close on with it. While HIV anymore, while is a burden, causing others have grown much closer. My perceptions of beau- me to live life with a fear of having to ty, of intimacy and especially of sexu- hide, wear a mask and have a constant ality and women have become very threat within me, it is also altering my delicate. The strange thing about HIV perceptions, giving me a new honesty is that it is a curse—but at the same towards myself, my family and my time it is a blessing. A relief. It makes friends. And in defiance of negativity me more aware of everything I am sur- and superficiality, I am confronting my fears to exhale.

r u n away

d ef e at u s

92 advertorial

humans need heroes

World Pride 2017 Madrid

photos © “Fundació Lluita contra la Sida”. 5ª Gala Sida Barcelona © Madrid Destino, Cultura, Turismo y Negocio S.A., Gregorio Reche, José Barea

Th e H e r o f r o m the world of pop

In Latin American pop, Miguel Bosé is a well known entity. Not only has the former actor-cum-pop star landed seven top ten hits in Italy, Spain and numerous Latin American countries, he’s also collaborated with many big names in the industry, from Shakira and Ricky Martin to Juanes and even R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe. And since his parents counted the likes of Picasso and Hemingway among their closest friends and his godfather was none other than the great Luchino Visconti, he truly seemed predestined for artistic success from the beginning.

running he’s been hosting the AIDS Gala Barcelona and using his name and connections to raise money for the fight against HIV. So far, each year he’s managed to raise more than half a million euros for AIDS research from the well known guests and sponsors at his outstanding gala dinner. Not only are we impressed by Miguel Bosé’s music but also by his giant heart and tireless support of this good cause. In a TV spot at the end of 2014, he repeated his promise to not give up the fight until a vaccine to prevent AIDS has been found.

Th e ta l e n t t o i n s pi r e

others

People like Miguel Bosé are blessed F u n d r a i s i n g D e l u x e with the talent to motivate and inspire His music stardom didn’t let him rest others. Such talents turn these people on his laurels though, as for five years into heroes when their main feat is to

M a d r i d , C e n t e r o f L ib e r t y

stand up for what’s important and give others a chance to follow suit and do the same. They show us how important it is to fight for something and lead by good example. And we need more people like them! There’s a hero in all of us. We just have to learn that it’s not enough to privately donate money every now and then, but that sometimes you have to make a statement with your actions—because other people are influenced by what we do and say.

For many years, Barcelona and Madrid, and Spain in general, have set good examples in the global fight for a more liberal world. Every year, more than two million people visit the famous Gay Pride in Madrid, and the five-day festivities that culminate in the final grand parade are not just a top event for members of the LGBT community but for everyone. Yet Spain’s capital city, Madrid, also shows its liberal side in everyday life, for example in its Chueca district, which is not only one of the trendiest neighbourhoods in Spain, but also has its own gay quarter with countless boutiques, cafés, bars, restaurants and night clubs. The city also stands out for its brave concepts in showbiz: At the Gula Gula, drag queens entertain the audience with top-notch comedy, shows and an excellent dinner, while the Teatro Alcalá is currently showing Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, a story about three transvestites on a road trip. So topics like

identity and cultural diversity are omnipresent here, and the courage people have shown to express themselves has definitely paid off.

As an upcoming highlight, in 2017 Madrid will be hosting WorldPride, for which the city will doubtlessly be bursting at the seams. And that’s great, because there can never be too many heroes in one place, and as long as it’s for a good cause, who cares if things get a bit crowded.

Here are a few sources of inspiration for your next trip to Spain:

www.esmadrid.com barcelonaturisme.com www.spain.info

96 FACADE

Editor'S Choice:

style-

TTI IPPP

Shirt by Lyle & Scott feat. Jonathan Saunders / Key chain by Givenchy / Bag by Louis Vuitton / Sneakers by Dolce & Gabbana / Vodka by Belvedere

Bag by Vivienne Westwood / Sticker by Anya Hindmarch at Amicis / Watch by Victorinox / Cap by New Era / Backpack by Eastpak with Jean Paul Gaultier / Shirt by Soulland / Fragrance Bleu de Chanel

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Long sleeve shirt Lylle & Scott feat. Jonathan Saunders / Underpants by Bjรถrn Borg / Headphones by Dre / Sunglasses by Lacoste/ Fragrance by Lacoste / Keychain by M Missoni / Shoes by Dolce & Gabbana

Cummerbund by Herr von Eden / Belt by M Missoni / Shorts by Lyle & Scott feat.

Jonathan Saunders / Tote by Vivienne Westwood / Sunglasses by Lacoste / Wallet by Givenchy / Creme by La Prairie / Pocket handkerchief by Herr von Eden

F a s h i o n Ed i t o r Mirza Sprecakovic mirzasprecakovic.com P h o t o g r a p h y , H a i r & M a k e Up S h l o m i t M i g ay s h l o m i t m i g ay. c o m M o d e l D av i d L . , M o t h e r A g e n c y A s s i s ta n t V i c t o r i a A b u l e s z BLACK BO D Y CHAIN SASKIA D IEZ , r e d p e A r l s G e m m i n i , w a t c h B e l l & R o s s , M a k e Up s p o n s o r e d b y MAC C o s m e t i c s

s t o c k i n g s A g e n t P r o v o c a t e u r , w a t c h B e l l & R o ss , n e c k l a c e S w a r o v s k i

s u n g l a ss e s A n d y W o l f e y e w e a r , R i n g s S t y l i s t ' s o w n

t i g h t s W o l f o r d , v i s o r w o r n a r o u n d t h e n e c k M i ss o n i , j e w e l l e r y S W a r o v s k i

t i g h t s P a l m e r s , S u n g l a ss e s A n d y W o l f e y e w e a r , G o l d e n R i n g v i n t a g e FERRAGAM , Gold/black Ring House of Harlow 1960

e mor See of ingmak tos pho

making of

editing: Crist贸bal Hornito I n t e r p r e t e r / T r a c k : S PAM t h e Q - B i RD o f HERM e S

110 advertorial

Conchita's

A walk around town with Austria’s most important voice After Conchita gave the Eurovision Song Contest the longoverdue political relevance that it needs, she’s become one of Austria’s best-known contemporary public figures worldwide. And it’s no surprise to us that such a progressive daughter of the modern age should choose Vienna as her home, as this city is, without doubt, one of the most liveable and tolerant places there is. This is also why we’ve asked Conchita to take us to all the local spots she thinks any visitor should know. And since one day simply isn’t enough to explore this town, the VANGARDIST’s editorial team has added a few tips of its own. After all, our offices are situated right in the heart of this metropolis with a unique location between Europe’s East and West.

photos © WienTourismus/Rainer Fehringer

Traditionally progressive Vienna is a progressive place, whether it’s for start-ups, fashion, art, culture or new lifestyle concepts. After all, our city council made a special effort to promote Vienna’s historical buildings like Schönbrunn Palace or places like the Prater’s famous Ferris wheel as being wedding locations available to couples choosing registered partnerships.

The city’s open-minded attitude goes back some time, as already back in 1993 Helmut Zilk, who was Vienna’s mayor at the time, opened its city hall to host the very first Life Ball. Over the years, this charity event, in keeping with its motto “Fighting AIDS—Celebrating Life”, has not only raised millions but has also become an acclaimed stage for the international who’s-who, so of course this year’s ball, entitled Ver Sacrum (Latin for “holy spring”), will also welcome big names like Charlize Theron and Jean Paul Gaultier. And it’s obviously no surprise that once more it’s Conchita’s charming smile we see on the golden posters announcing the event.

Come aboard and enjoy A broad channel of the Danube runs right through the city, and on its banks you’ll find beach cafés and deck chairs on proper beach sand, a boat equipped with a swimming pool and downstairs party area, and an abundance of graffiti art which has turned the entire river promenade into an open-air gallery.

And right above the pier of the Twin City Liner, a speedboat that covers the distance between Vienna and Bratislava in only 45 minutes, you’ll find the area’s highlight: the café-restaurant Motto am Fluss. Well, of course this is where Conchita likes to start her day off.

The venue’s boat-like architecture and timber plank floors instantly remove you from the city’s day-to-day reality and make you feel like you’re on holiday, and its culinary options are worthy of the Titanic’s first class. Whether you pick the café on the upper deck, the downstairs dining room or the truly amazing cocktail bar, you’ll definitely enjoy what you’re served. And to top it all off, it’s guaranteed to be all topquality organic food. Yummy!

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Underneath the imperial city If there’s anyone Conchita Wurst has to share her glory with, it’s our beloved Sissi, as Empress Elisabeth has been tenderly nicknamed by all those who are eagerly trying to shove tickets to one of her numerous palaces or a cup adorned with her image at you.

Up until Conchita’s big breakthrough, Sissi was, in effect, Austria’s First Lady, which might have had more to do with the way Romy Schneider portrayed her in her famous Sissi trilogy of films than with the actual eccentric royal lady, known for keeping diplomats waiting and then showing them gymnastic tricks on the high bar.

If you feel like walking in the eccentric empress’ footsteps for a day, you should visit her private quarters at the Sissi Museum at Hofburg Palace, her summer residence Schönbrunn, or the Hermesvilla. There’s a total of 27 palaces waiting to be explored in Vienna, so when you’ve finally seen the last one, you might already feel it’s time to go back to the first.

Yet instead of leading us to the grandiose buildings of the old aristocracy, Conchita takes us to the Imperial Crypt, where 149 members of the Habsburg

family lie buried under the Kapuzinerkirche. It’s open to the public and if you manage to find an unoccupied spot, you can place all kinds of devotional objects by the empress’ tomb.

Art for philistines Next, we follow Conchita into our nation’s greatest music institution: the Vienna State Opera. Here, you can regularly see international stars like Anna Netrebko perform on the grand

stage. Those of you who prefer your nights spent in clubs should at least check in during the day for a guided tour through the magnificent building.

The auditorium is humongous and the glimpse that visitors are allowed into the backstage area is really quite exciting. Newbies and spontaneous types can purchase standing-room tickets for three to five euros on the night of the show. After all, as a city of culture, Vienna wants all its citizens to have access to what it has to offer, and when

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we say culture, we mean no less than one hundred museums (plus we’d consider the city in itself a giant openair museum). Life here is amazing. No matter where you work, live or like to hang, your eyes will be aesthetically entertained by the stucco decorations and statues found everywhere in the city.

Ending the day with a nice drink After all this culture, we’re in need of a drink, and so Conchita takes us to her second living room, the Cuban Mojito Bar in Vienna’s first district. The elegantly crafted dark wood panelling takes us back to the glorious old times, and from behind the bar we’re

greeted by the friendly bar owner herself. We order a Colada Habanera and are served an entire pineapple with straws: bravo! Why this is such a special place for Conchita is something she’ll explain in the video available with the online edition of this magazine. Unlike Conchita, we’re not fully booked tonight, so now we have time to head out into the night and find some things to add to our list of recommendations for you.

Thank God Vienna isn’t New York If you dislike going out in places like New York where bars close at 2:00 a.m. and security will politely but firmly usher you out of a club by four, then you’ve come to the right place, because in Vienna you can revel till the crack of dawn. With the city’s 1.8 million inhabitants, it has quite a substantial nightlife, and if you know where to go, you’ll always find a place to go wild on the dance floor. That said, there’s no drunken revelry comparable to places like Ibiza or New Orleans during Mardi Gras. Vienna has just too much charm for such things, plus quite a fondness for individuality. Special society events are mostly privately organized,

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but if you go to www.wien.info, the city’s official online guide, you’ll find a regularly updated event calendar offering quite a variety of tips for every taste, from the Rainbow Parade to S&M clubs and gay saunas.

A whole month of delight The merry month of May is looking especially wild this year. May 16th sees the opening of Life Ball season, and before that, the pre-parties start popping up like peonies in the city’s event calendars. Soon after, the big open-air

stage at the Rathausplatz will become part of the Eurovision Song Contest Village, and for the one week leading up to the grand finale at the Stadthalle on May 23, there’ll be entertainment and live music galore (for those of you who didn’t get finale tickets, you can still sign up for one of the other eight ESC events held at the same venue).

And of course, Vienna’s organisers of community events are also gearing up for the onslaught of the ESC troops, so for a whole week there’ll be one party after the other.

Calendar of events L i f e B a ll

Eurovision

F e t i s h Sp r i n g

Song Contest

Vi e n n a

16.5.2015

18.–23.5.2015

3.–7.6.2015

Vi e n n a P r i d e

Regenbogen-

identities - Queer

pa r a d e

Fil m F e s t i va l

20.6.2015

11.–21.6.2015

16.–21.6.2015

For more tips, go to:

Or connect on:

www.wien.info/en/vienna-for/gay-lesbian

www.facebook.com/GayCityWien

www.wien.info/en/lifestyle-scene/nightlife

www.facebook.com/WienTourismus http://www.youtube.com/Vienna http://instagram.com/viennatouristboard

P l a c e s f r o m t hi s a r t i c l e : M o t t o a m Fl u s s

Cuban Mojito Bar

Franz-Josefs-Kai, 1010 Vienna

Naglergasse 5, 1010 Vienna

www.motto.at

www.cubanmojitobar.at

Vi e n n a S tat e Op e r a

Imperial Crypt

Opernring 2, 1010 Vienna

TegetthoffstraĂ&#x;e 2, 1010 Vienna

www.wiener-staatsoper.at

www.kaisergruft.at

Cl u b s

Pa r t y s

P r at e r s a u n a

OMG

www.pratersauna.tv/site/club.aspx

www.facebook.com/pages/OMG-Society/147455705303019

Volksgarten volksgarten.at/de/

Th e Ci r c u s Cl u b www.facebook.com/The.Circus.Club

G r e ll e F o r e ll e www.grelleforelle.com

K e n Cl u b Vi e n n a www.facebook.com/ken.club.vienna

Ch aya F u e r a chayafuera.com

Malefiz www.facebook.com/malefizclub M e at M a r k e t www.facebook.com/ClubMeatMarket H e av e n www.facebook.com/heavenvienna Wh y N o t www.why-not.at

118 vangart

deep t h r oat an I nterview with F ilius de L acr o i x

0001 << H o m m a g e t o K e i t h H a r i n g Filius de Lacroix, 2015 especially for the #HIVHEROES Edition

Light and shadow

text & interview Tobias Seebacher

Filius de Lacroix, paper artist from Vienna, doesn’t paint or draw pictures, he cuts them. The resulting works are captivating for their clear language of form and hard porn aesthetics. For #HIVHEROES, we met the artist for an exclusive interview to discuss controversial topics such as art as a form of social critique, HIV, personal crises and full penetration.

It was hardly a coincidence that Filius de Lacroix ended up an artist. From early childhood, he was encouraged and supported by his parents, who he affectionately describes as “hippie porn Catholics”. At some point during his architecture studies, Filius started to use paper models to experiment with the effects of light and shadow, and the realisation that you could do a lot more with paper than simply write on it quickly inspired extraordinary things in him: After only a few cuts with a knife or scalpel, he transforms a simple sheet of paper into a piece with intense suggestive effects and a high level of plasticity and physicality. Through the mere use of light and shadow, he’s able to develop the full range of greyscale needed for more complex themes. The resulting figures in his pictures appear pure and clean, and with their concisely defined shapes they remind the viewer, in a way, of the aesthetics of comics.

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A nice surprise over a cup of coffee P o r n m o v i e s t ill s

De Lacroix mainly uses portraits as his models, but sometimes he also finds inspiration in certain situations, objects and emotions. His pornographyinspired pictures, which make up a large part of his work, have received an especially strong public response.

They show themes based on porn movie stills from the 70s that openly depict people naked and fornicating, while also referencing topics like gang bangs, autoeroticism and homosexuality in an undisguised, and almost distant or matter-of-fact, manner. The artist seeks to provoke his audience with these images and categorically rejects the idea of beauty as an artistic end in and of itself. So if the sight of gay cowboys, voluptuous backsides, hairy pussies and plump breasts shocks you, you should definitely take a closer look—don’t forget you’re looking at art!

In a cosy corner of the Café Nil in Vienna’s seventh district, we meet the master of cuts himself. With his long dark hair, his “pornstache” and washed out denim jacket, he looks like someone right out of his own pictures and his lively eyes betray that he is a restless, but keen, observer. He expresses surprise at his arriving on time, orders as double espresso with milk, and sits down. After a short exchange of pleasantries, he reveals that he’s got a little surprise for us: Exclusively for our #HIVHEROES Edition, he’s going to cut a portrait of the American artist Keith Haring. In the 80s, Haring used his artworks to benefit numerous charitable activities against AIDS; Haring himself died of the virus in 1990, two years after receiving his diagnosis. We want to give another great big thank you to Filius for his generous offer, which we think is amazing! And now the time has come to let the artist speak for himself.

0002 Filius de Lacroix

Vangardist: We’re sitting here at the cosy Café Nil in a neighbourhood of Vienna where, artistically, there’s a lot going on at the moment. Do you need these kinds of surroundings as a source of inspiration?

Filius de Lacroix: Definitely, because I get a large part of my inspiration from people-watching in different bars and

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0003 b a n g y o u r f r i e n d s , Filius de Lacroix, 2013

cafés here. This means that many of my pictures are based on everyday situations, but the people involved in them can’t be recognised directly, because in the end what remains is pure form.

V: You use a special variation of the silhouette paper cutout technique that relies on the effect created by light and shadow. What should we imagine the development process of a Lacroix piece to be like?

F: The term cutout is actually misleading in combination with my work, because I don’t simply cut out forms, I walk around with my camera and pick out specific situations. For more complex themes, I first sketch their mirrorreversed image on the back with a pencil. I always cut them out from the back though, because that creates nicer cut lines on the front, which you can see if you take a closer look. Afterwards, I mount the whole thing on a cardboard backing and affix it in certain places.

Sometimes I’m also approached di-

rectly by people at some party who ask me to do a picture of them. Then I usually wait for them to get a bit tipsy before I ask them to accompany me to the restroom. You wouldn’t believe all the local in-scene names here in Vienna who have stripped for me. Of course I assure everyone, and I always keep that promise, that I’ll delete their photos as soon as the images are finished. This awareness of the evanescence of my material also intrigues me.

I only work with untreated paper, which means that after some time it starts to turn yellow—just like people age and grow older too. I just find that a beautiful sight.

V: What’s striking is how monochrome your pieces are. Is this owing to the specific material aesthetics of the paper you use, or is there another idea behind this “art of omission”?

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F: There’s one more very important thought in this: As soon as I add a colour, and even if it’s only red lipstick, I automatically dictate a basic emotion to whoever’s looking at the picture. If I depict a gangbang scene in black or red, I instantly give it a touch of wickedness, of something forbidden. If it’s all in white, the image retains its virginal innocence.

V: The topics you work with are quite varied, and you’ve also created set designs and commissioned work for magazines and big fashion companies like Hermès—where your art is quickly gaining publicity at the moment. But that’s not always been the case, right? What led to your breakthrough as an artist?

F: There was a time when I’d pretty much hit rock-bottom. After ten years in the business, I had to close down my multimedia agency, and after a 20-year relationship and 15 years of

marriage I got divorced and, as a result, broke off contact with a lot of socalled friends. So I was sitting around my 30-square-metre bachelor pad with letters from the debt collection agency piling up, drunk and basically awaiting eviction. At that low point in my life, one day I was sitting on the loo taking a dump, wallowing in self-pity and telling myself: “God, you’ve managed to royally fuck up your life, dammit!” And when I looked down on the ground I saw, on a sheet of kitchen paper towels lying around, the face of a woman.

I instantly went to my desk and started cutting, and after 30 attempts I finally managed to get one done the way I’d imagined it. And from that point things continued looking up, up, up. I was soon commissioned to do jobs for a variety of magazines, was suddenly also selling a lot of my work directly to private customers, and my pictures for Peek & Cloppenburg were shown in Vienna, Berlin and Stuttgart.

be porn mags on the kitchen table; all this was very normal to me. But when I hit puberty, I suddenly started to have a problem with it. All this didn’t fit in with the coolness propagated in the 80s when, even in the hottest summer months, people were walking around V: In November 2012, you had your in black polo-neck jumpers. Back then, first solo exhibition under the inter- I wasn’t interested in porn either and esting title "Deep Throat". The audi- found it extremely boring when my ence was presented with a lot of bare friends went to the video shop for skin, sensual titillation, full penetra- porn. I couldn’t understand how anytion, group sex, big tits, gay cowboys, one could be so obsessed with sex and and so on—mainly subjects taken nudity, but now I’ve started to look into the subject again. from 70s porn Porn is one of the films. What "Every year, we’d go to nude oldest art forms, inspired you b e a c h e s , s o a s a c hil d I w a s as people have to deal with c o n s ta n t ly s u r r o u n d e d always felt the pornography b y n u d i t y a n d s e x u a li t y . need to depict as a topic?

My dad would also female fertility F: My parents, c o n s t a n t l y t a k e pi c t u r e s in some way or intellectual of my naked mum..." show men with hippies and typical products of the 70s, had a very erect penises. The film Deep Throat free, permissive lifestyle. Every year, from 1972 marks the breakthrough we’d go to nude beaches, so as a child point when porn became mainstream, I was constantly surrounded by nudity and that’s why the aesthetics of my and sexuality. My dad would also con- work make reference to that time. stantly take pictures of my naked mum and next to the morning paper, there’d

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d e r s t r i c h e r , Fi

V: In your opinion, what determines whether or not a piece of art is perceived as pornographic?

F: I think what’s essential to understanding this is that this perception happens inside the viewer’s head. If what I see corresponds to some erotic desire of mine, it becomes pornographic; or by IKEA. Art has been reduced to fulalso, if I see something that I can’t rec- filling a decorative role for ordinary middle-class consumers or serving as oncile with my own ethical values. an object of capitalist speculation for V: With the way you reprocess porn collectors who only buy what’s exfilms, you confront social phenom- pensive and is likely to become even ena everyone thought had been long more expensive. And if you make art overcome, yet even half a century af- that, at first glance, doesn’t look like ter the hippie generation an open ap- it might fit into a designer apartment, proach to sexuality remains an illu- you hardly stand a chance of getting sion. Do you see it as the artist’s job a good gallery interested in you. But to stimulate open public discourse by that’s a disaster, because art’s purpose provocation and exposure of our vul- shouldn’t be that it’s beautiful, but that it addresses problems! nerabilities?

F: The way I see it, that’s the main purpose of art! Too often, art’s only role V: When confronting people with HIV, is to fit into your beautiful designer no matter what their social backapartment, even if it’s cheap and made ground, many unfortunately still associate it with things like promiscuity, homosexuality and guilt due to a lack of responsibility. Why do you think these prejudices are so deeply rooted? ilius de Lacroix, 2013

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F: I can add a few more to the list: “nigger”, “whore”, “junkie”! It wasn’t long ago that we started to dismantle traditional relationship structures and, especially in less urban areas, the typical heterosexual relationship with two children is still seen as the norm. And so someone who’s stuck in this conservative “neo-bourgeois” concept and confronted with HIV will probably think: “Thank God that could never happen in my safe, healthy world. And well, the fact that John got it doesn’t surprise anyone, does it? Because he sleeps with prostitutes!” And the media supports this kind of attitude. You’ll never read about, say, a nice student couple who have a completely “normal” relationship and both have AIDS, but obviously the example of the junkie they find in the street we do hear about, because he had sex with a dealer from Africa. So the prevalent attitude is still that AIDS only affects those that you should stay away from anyway—

those who supposedly threaten the system. We tend to forget that it’s precisely because of the threatening role they’re attributed to having that many of these people are struggling with social marginalisation. Among everyone I know here in Vienna, homosexuality is generally dealt with quite openly, and I think in that respect we’re quite a good model city. Conchita taking part in the Song Contest for example was quite a good message to promote tolerance in the world. And then, in comparison, we have someone like Andreas Gabalier who, in his role as a “poor hetero” feels threatened by things he refuses to understand! That’s one of the few things that really piss me off.

V: When looking at your pictures, the viewer often feels a bit caught out, because the images make you think of the porn you’ve watched, even though you know it’s art you’re looking at,

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connection with Off Art Vienna about images you’re not allowed to show in certain galleries because they depict a giant pussy or whatever.

and consequently you’re confronted with the question of how to categorise it. Do you deliberately play with this V: That reminds us a bit of the Salons de Refusés in 19th century Paris uncertainty?

F: Absolutely! When people realise where artists exhibited pieces which that what they’ve been looking at is a the official jury had deemed too ugly giant cunt, and they feel shocked for or improper, some of which today are a moment, but then smile a bit, that known as important milestones in art history. So means I’ve won it seems like because in that even in toinstant I’ve man" Wh e n p e o pl e r e a li s e t h a t aged to create w h at t h e y ’ v e b e e n l o o k i n g at day’s art a little shift in is a giant cunt, world there them.

Maybe are still a lot and they feel shocked for they won’t noof problems a m o m e n t , b u t t h e n s m il e a bi t , tice it straight we thought t h at m e a n s I ’ v e w o n . . . " away, but evenhad been tually they might solved but view something that still need more openly, even if it’s only some lit- to be dealt with. On that note, we tle thing. hope that many people will still get to see your pictures. Thank you so much V: Our last question: What direction for the interview and for getting inare you headed in artistically? volved!

F: My next big series will be about punk icons, but at the moment I’m also working on another porn series, which will be shown in a small group show in

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