HIV/AIDS Pandemic and the Art of Mosaic

Year 1981 is generally considered the beginning of the HIV/ AIDS pandemic, although the pandemic in reality started way before this year, but was not identified or described. The more than forty-year “official” course of the HIV/AIDS pandemic has left a distinctive mark in culture and arts and its impact on visual arts in its entirety is striking. The HIV/AIDS pandemic is moving through various stages and the last stage so far, i.e. the stage of the HIV/ AIDS pandemic during the time of global instability, started with the COVID-19 pandemic. The HIV/AIDS pandemic to a certain extent is under global control owing to significant progress in therapy and prevention but keeping it under control is highly demanding from the financial and organisational perspective [1]. It is safe to say that the HIV/AIDS pandemic is heading towards an unknown terrain. The role of culture and arts will be increasingly important as we seek ways of facing the increasing risks from the spiritual and psychological point of view.

The art of mosaic is at the starting point of the contemporary forms of visual arts and its close connection with architecture is essential in this. The paper strives to assess how the art of mosaic can reflect the new stage in the HIV/AIDS pandemic development, which may revolve around a very different topic compared to the 1980s and 1990s. During this era, the HIV/AIDS pandemic was associated with sexual and sexological topics, such as the status of sexual minorities, prostitution or pornography, as well as drug addiction. The aim is to

a) assess the presence of the art of mosaic in the reflection of the HIV/AIDS pandemic to date in visual arts and specifically architecture;

b) define the historical spiritual and thematic sphere of influence of the art of mosaic in comparison with artistic topics introduced by the HIV/AIDS pandemic;

c) point out how specifically the art of mosaic may find its sphere of influence in the artistic expression of further course of the HIV/AIDS pandemic [2].

The scientific paper is based on the following resources:

a. Tomáš Hájek (2025) Research: Utopia of Non-Technological Type and the Topic of Prostitution. Open Access Journal of Addiction and Psychology, DOI: 10.3352/OAJAP.2025.08.000686, Volume 8 - Issue 3, December 2025

b. Tomáš Hájek (2025) On the Aesthetics of the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Context of the Impact of Historical Epidemics and Pandemics on Visual Arts, Urbanism, and Architecture. Biomedical Journal of Scientific & Technical Research, E-Book, ISBN 978-1-946628-20-6

c. Tomáš Hájek (2025) HIV/AIDS pandemie ve výtvarném umění, divadle a literatuře. 11. Český kongres o HIV/AIDS s mezinárodní účastí, Primavera Hotel & Congress centre Plzeň 27. - 28.11.2025, Sborník abstraktů přednášek

d. Research entitled “HIV/AIDS Pandemic in Visual Arts, Theatre and Literature, period covered: 1980-2025, languages: Czech, English, German.

e. Long-term membership in the Associazione internazionale mosaicisti contemporanei and the Czech Glass Society [3].

General identification of any artwork clearly having the character of mosaic or at least an artwork with characteristics close to the art of mosaic was carried out in two major visual arts catalogues for the entire course of the HIV/AIDS pandemic (1981-2025) and in other available resources detected through research. This closeness may be represented, for example, in the use of the structure of tesserae in the media mix, or in a three-dimensional character of artwork designed in a broader mosaic structure.

Table 1: Two major visual art catalogues (visual arts should be perceived in the broader sense including photography and architecture) for the entire course of the HIV/AIDS pandemic (1981-2025).

Table 1: Identified works of visual art in the context of architecture that may be classified as the art of mosaic or as being close to the art of mosaic for the entire course of the HIV/AIDS pandemic (1981-2025).

Table 3: Definition of historical spiritual and thematic sphere of influence of the art of mosaic in comparison with topics introduced by the HIV/AIDS pandemic (1981-2025) in visual arts in the context of architecture [3] .

The sphere of influence of the art of mosaic in the current stage of the HIV/AIDS pandemic stems mainly from artistic participation in the creation of commemorative architectural memorials as part of garden and park architecture, public space in residential premises or open landscape; in funeral architecture; in artistic participation in the visual art and architectural genre of guilt, if it is to be developed. Naturally, the art of mosaic may enter its traditional realm and create two-dimensional mosaic images or three-dimensional mosaic creations and contribute to interior floor mosaics or creation of murals. Participation of the art of mosaic in the cultural and artistic reflection of the development of the HIV/AIDS pandemic will probably lead to deviation from the artistic and visual representation of the HIV/AIDS pandemic typical for the 1980s and 1990s. The previously frequent sexual and sexological topics, themes of illness, suffering and death, or themes of political activism of the 1980s and 1990s will no longer be used to such a majorextent. Spiritual, religious, intellectual and social themes will appear more frequently. The art of mosaic will focus on expressing the topics inherent to this art: time, eternity, eschatology, justice, sense of history. The art of mosaic may further develop the method creatively initiated in the AIDS Memorial, Sendlinger Tor, München, or L’Artère, le jardin des dessins in Paris.

Table 4: Selected individual creations in the visual arts and architectural genre of quilt

The author would like to thank the Study and Scientific Library of the Plzeň Region for their help with researching the topic.

No conflict of interest.

1. Tomáš Hájek (2019) Několik poznámek ke souvztažnosti sociálních otřesů a nestability s rozvojem HIV pandemie. 6. Mezinárodní symposium ke Světovému dni AIDS, CONGRESS CENTRE Primavera Plzeň, 21.-22.11.2019, Sborník abstraktů přednášek
2. Jörn Wolters (2020) AIDS memorials from obituaries to artworks – a photo essay. Science Museum Group Journal, Special Issue: Curating Medicine.
3. Magdalena Kracík Štorkánová, Jana Fořtová-Tornošová, Petra Bauerová, Veronika Vicherková, Tomáš Hájek a kol. (2015) Opus musivum, mozaika ve výtvarném umění. katalog k výstavě, která se koná od 20.11.2015 do 1.5.2016 ve Středočeském muzeu v Roztokách u Prahy, ART&CRAFT Mozaika, pp. 71.