In 2004, a number of current Ultra-red members joined AIDS activists in Los Angeles to begin organizing a new chapter of ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power). In helping facilitate AIDS activist training workshops in Los Angeles, Ultra-red members have confronted not only the memory of a past activist moment, but its absence.

Ultra-red's decision to occupy major American art institutions is tactical. SILENT|LISTEN reconnects the art world and AIDS activists with memories of when the arts served as a crucial arena - in some communities, the only public space - for open discussions about the pandemic. Despite the current absence of AIDS-related exhibitions the crisis continues, abetted as always by refusals to remember, refusals to mourn, and refusals to act.

Central to this project is a reconsideration of the mission statement of ACT UP; "united in anger to end the AIDS crisis through direct action." In the current proto-fascist historical moment, SILENT|LISTEN invokes affective responses other than rage as constitutive of collective action. The alternative, waiting for anger, will prove politically disastrous in terms of AIDS and the larger political crisis.

ps/o8.a. baltimoremuseumofartsaturdayapril162005 ps/o8.b. hammermuseumofartthursdaymay52005 ps/o8.c. banffcentrefortheartsthursdayjune232005 ps/o8.d. andywarholmuseumofartwednesdaynovember302005 ps/o8.e. concordiauniversitytuesdayapril42006 ps/o8.f. southernillinoisuniversityfridayapril142006 ps/o8.g. artgalleryofontariowednesdayaugust92006 ps/08.h. xviinternationalaidsconferencemondayaugust142006 ps/o8.i. silentlistentherecord ps/o8.j. silentlistentheminutes ps/o8.k. untitledforsevenvoices ps/o8.l. untitledforsixvoices ps/o8.m. untitledforsmallensemble ps/o8.n. untitledforlargeensemble