15 life stories, 3 countries, 3 photo artists
Māris Grīnbergs (LV)
Külli Sparre (EST)
Irutė Jaruševičiūtė (LT)
The exhibition WOMEN. CHILDREN. HIV features works by three photo artists portraying the stories of 15 HIV-infected persons, thus encouraging us to think about our health and to become more understanding and compassionate towards those who have to live with the disease.
In this year, the exhibition will travel around Latvia, in November next year it will begin the road in Lithuania, but in November 2018 -Estonia.
The aim of the exhibition is to make society stop and think: HIV can affect anyone. The disease is not inherent to some specific part of society.
This time – it’s about women and children.
Statistics speak for themselves – each year more than 300 persons become infected by HIV, and approximately 100 get AIDS. Roughly half of the infected are women, and each year several children receive positive HIV results. The reality is harsh.
The painful truth is that the majority of those infected with HIV feel excluded from society and unnecessarily, from their families and friends.
Stereotypes. So many of them – an incurable plague that spreads with the speed of light, destroying everything in its wake. Due to strong biases and lack of knowledge, people’s lives are crushed, their desires and dreams are killed and their hopes – dashed…
The spread of the virus can be halted, but is there a “treatment” to make society more open-hearted and equally humane to everyone?
Each story in this exhibition is special. Bitter. But full of hope.
*All works are artists’ interpretations inspired by life story motifs.
Exhibition’s opening (in Latvian &English) video link.
Real stories and their interpretation in the artists’ works…
agihas.lv