Afọ 40 dị mma site na ọrịa AIDS na-efe efe ruo ọgbọ na-enweghị nje HIV

Forty years have passed since an article was published in the New York Times documenting the arrival of a new and unknown disease later identified as AIDS, acronym for Acquired ImmunoDeficiency Syndrome. To honor 4 decades of battles against the HIV infection, the Galleria dei Frigoriferi Milanesi in Milan hosted from November 12 to December 5, 2021, the exhibition 40 years positive. From the AIDS pandemic to an HIV free generation.

The event was promoted and organized by Milano Check Point, with the support of ALA Milano Onlus, Anlaids section Lombarda, ASA Milano Onlus, CIG – Arcigay Milano, LILA Milano Onlus Foundation, and NPS Italia Onlus and Simit Lombardia, with the patronage of the Regional Council of the Lombardy Region, the Municipality of Milan, Department of Culture and Department of Welfare and Health, main sponsor ViiV Healthcare, Gilead Sciences, Durex, top sponsor Janssen and Cilag, Cepheid, UniCredit, and media partner Corriere della Sera and Corriere della Sera Foundation.

The review presents documents, archives, posters, works of art, and advertising campaigns that tell the story of the great revolution of the care and development of scientific research which, thanks to the resistance movements of civil society born in the United States in the early 80s, then spread also in Europe and Italy.

These movements witnessed the radical change of course to alter the approach to participatory medicine and proximity.

The exhibition itinerary opened with a copy of the New York newspaper from which one winds narration through archival materials from the Corriere della Sera Foundation and from those of the Milanese associations particularly active in the fight against AIDS.

A gallery with the faces of characters such as Rock Hudson, Pier Vittorio Tondelli, Freddie Mercury, Magic Johnson, Bruce Richmann, and Gareth Thomas who contributed, each in his own way, with their image and their personal history, are displayed to define a leap towards self-determination and towards the removal of the stigma that still weighs on the lives of the people that live with HIV today. These images act as a hinge to the section of the exhibition where the works of art are intertwined with the story.

Here are the portraits of the American artist Larry Stanton made in 1984 shortly before his death and Last Night I Took a Man by David Wojnarowicz, a real visual poem with a strong impact of political denunciation and bodily claim, as well as AIDS: You Can’t Catch It Holding Hands by Nikki de Saint Phalle.

Visual communication also gets involved with Benetton advertising campaigns dedicated to AIDS and signed by Oliviero Toscani, and with the photograph of Therese Frare taken to activist David Kirby, who made himself available to be immortalized in the last moments of one’s life as an extreme political gesture.

Particularly touching are the images taken by an anonymous author at the Sacco Hospital in Milan which documents the intimate dimension of care within the infectious disease department in the darkest years of the pandemic.

A particular space is dedicated to the immersive installation of the Names Project AIDS Memorial Quilt (the blanket of names). The project, born from an idea of Cleve Jones, involved the realization of cloth panels on which thoughts and drawings were imprinted to commemorate friends and family who have disappeared, precisely because they died of AIDS and their families had difficulty receiving a funeral farewell ceremony.

The review continues with the documentation of Franko B’s performance a na m atụ ụche gị, together with a selection of photographs of him, which raises a voice of protest through the exposure of the naked body and ends with a section dedicated to the visual representation of scientific studies Partners 1 and 2 published in 2016 and 2019, which demonstrate how much the risk for transmission is during unprotected sexual intercourse with HIV-positive people on both ZERO treatment.

These studies are visualized through an installation with 2,660 rubber ducks – representing the number of the participants in the studies – to impress in memory and explain through a strong image the greatest scientific achievement concerning HIV of the last decade.

40 Years Positive also offers a sound space, created through 2 audio works and the composition of the various audio-video documents, such as the precious documents coming from the GLBT Historical Society Archive.

A Silence Broken na Silent/Listen are two audio works with which the Ultra-red Collective in 2005-2006 revived the attention and debate around HIV/AIDS.

On the evening of the inauguration, there was a performance in which 3 actresses – Alessia Spinelli, Federica Fracassi, and Lucia Marinsalta – read particularly significant and moving stories.

Emotion was in the air – it could read in the eyes and expressions of the visitors who lived the era of the pandemic but also in the young people who today are experiencing their first pandemic, more severe and perhaps more lasting than HIV.

Foto niile © Mario Masciullo

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