Note to Correspondents

EXHIBIT of BODY MAPS of people living with HIV to OPEN

 

AT United Nations HEADQUARTERS 10 June

 

An exhibition entitled “In Living Colour:  Understanding Ourselves in a World with HIV”, will open on Tuesday, 10 June, in the South Gallery of the Visitors’ Lobby at 6 p.m.  This exhibit is presented in conjunction with the United Nations General Assembly’s high-level meeting on AIDS, to be held on 10 and 11 June.

The exhibit features body maps that tell the stories of people living with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and provides life-saving information about HIV.  The body maps were created by women from Canada, United Republic of Tanzania and Zambia, in five-day workshops organized by the Canadian AIDS Treatment Information Exchange (CATIE) and the Regional Psychosocial Support Initiative (REPSSI).

Facilitated by trained artists, the women went through a series of exercises -- tracing their bodies on paper, then drawing their faces and images of their internal organs and external scars.  Words, symbols and pictures were subsequently added by the women to describe their health, history, points of personal power and life goals.  The resulting body maps portray the impact the virus has had on each woman’s body and mind.  The body maps offer viewers a window to living with HIV.

This exhibit is co-organized by the Permanent Missions of Canada, the United Republic of Tanzania and Zambia to the United Nations, Canadian AIDS Treatment Information Exchange and the Joint United Nations Programme on AIDS (UNAIDS).

For more information on the exhibition, call Jan Arnesen, tel.:  212 963 8531; or Liza Wichmann, tel.:  212 963 0089.

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For information media • not an official record