A new year, a new start for Beauty without Irony!


 

 

BWI is now also on Twitter and Facebook and full of plans for 2012 and beyond1

Beauty without Irony (the art collective that gave birth to Designers against AIDS in 2001) wants to make the world more beautiful by using elements from pop culture to raise awareness about the fact  that life is worth living and that true beauty, love, friendship, health and nature bring lots more- and longer lasting-  joy than expensive handbags, villas or yachts.

In the last 5 years I’ve been very busy expanding our NGO  Designers against AIDS and opening our first education center in Antwerp, where we teach young people from all over the world how they can use pop culture to tell their peers that safe sex is needed, normal and cool.

During the Christmas holiday period I had some time to reflect and it suddenly struck me that we can use the same techniques to tell the world that life is worth living if you can appreciate the beauty that is around you already: your friends and family, nature,  your cat, dog and/or canary,  discovering different cultures, doing volunteer work… It’s not about chasing after more stuff –of which most of us have way too much anyway- as that won’t make you happy- it just will make you poor.  The reason the economy is collapsing right now is that so many people have been greedy and  advertisements have urged us to spend above our means. Realizing that you don’t have to play that game anymore is liberating: you save money, de-cluttering your space frees your mind, you can work fewer hours and do fun things instead, like volunteer work (try it and you’ll get hooked!), exploring your creativity or just a nice walk in the park with a friend.

Isn’t it way more fulfilling to help make the world a better place than to stress over where to find the money to buy that new pair of ‘It’ shoes, that are ‘Out’ again the moment you carry them out of the store, only to be replaced by another pair you have to rush/lust after? Thought so.

 

Artists and creatives have always been on the forefront of social change and it’s my hope that together with them and with supportive brands and organizations we can build and expand Beauty without Irony in such a way that we can create beautiful and efficient awareness campaigns to use in social media and in print, organize an exhibition around the concept of pure beauty that should be so inspiring that you’re dizzy when you leave the space afterwards, work on our next book and open a second education center, this time in Los Angeles and with the idea of building a beautiful and better/more just world together using elements from pop culture. Safe sex is a natural part of this- but not the only part.

 

Would you like to join? Let us know in the comments section or send me a message at Ninette@designersagainstaids.com

 

Love & light,

 

Ninette

 

 

Notice

Only registered users who are
logged in are able to comment.


Leave a comment >>>

No Comments Yet

most viewed

  1. Our sister organization NGO Designers against AIDS (DAA) has the Twitter account _DAA and they're trying to organize #PersonalTweetsOnlyDay on September 1st. Here you can find out why.

  2. Beauty without Irony wants to become a place where lovers of true beauty and haters of hypocrisy and hypes come together- although we don’t really ‘do’ hate, since we prefer to focus on the positive at all times.
    Do you want to make the world a more beautiful place? Do you have something amazing to show, or do you know an artist who would fit perfectly in our online art collective? Please let us know and meanwhile, get inspired by what you see here.

  3. This still is from a video installation by contemporary artist Marie Julia Bollanssée- I love the atmosphere and the colours!

  4. Last Friday the DAA book launch and charity auction at Campo & Campo took place and fun was had by all...

  5. On Friday October 29 auction house Campo & Campo in Antwerp auctioned many art works made by photographers and other contemporary artists who also contributed to our new book 'Designers against AIDS: The First Decade!'.

    From the almost 50 works on offer, only 4 didn't sell because they didn't reach the minimum price, so we can say that the auction was a big success. All proceeds go to benefit DAA's new Education Center and a big thanks goes out to everybody who has made this auction and the book possible- you are all superstars! Enjoy the collage of the sold works, made for DAA by Michael James O'Brien and Zoltan Gerliczki.

  6. Over 100 artists are featured in the book, but many more have sent us work....

  7. The making of this book has been pretty intense for a lot of people, so when it arrived from the printers today, a collective sigh of relief could be heard from Antwerp to ...well, to everywhere. Well done, us!

  8. For many years I worked in palliative care. My patients were those who had gone home to die. Some incredibly special times were shared. I was with them for the last three to twelve weeks of their lives. People grow a lot when they are faced with their own mortality.

  9. We're quite taken with this video called A Warm Place which was made by Jeff Morris in Yosemite Park in California USA. The power of nature is without compare and we're in awe of her beauty.

  10. Beauty without Irony (the art collective that gave birth to Designers against AIDS in 2001) wants to make the world more beautiful by using elements from pop culture to raise awareness about the fact  that life is worth living and that true beauty, love, friendship, health and nature bring lots more- and longer lasting-  joy than expensive handbags, villas or yachts.