Artists and HIV/AIDS: An exhibition in Prato on forgotten history
An exhibition to 'recompose' the forgotten story of Italians hit by the crisis of HIV-AIDS over a 15-year period. It is entitled 'Art and Affected, HIV-AIDS in Italy. 1982-1996', the exhibition curated by Michele Bertolino, which will be hosted at the Center for Art contemporary Pecci di Prato from 4 October to 10 May 2026. Artworks, poems, soundscapes and videos combine to archival materials and personal memories in a journey that spans the years from 1982 to 1996, from the first report of full-blown AIDS in Italy upon the arrival of therapies antiretrovirals, restoring the urgency and uniqueness of that time. The exhibition opens with a film made for the occasion, with the poems of Dario Bellezza, Massimiliano Chiamenti, Nino Gennaro, Ottavio Mai, La Nina, Marco Sanna and Pier Vittorio Tondelli, poets who lived with HIV and they told in their texts, read here by artists. The archive represents the heart of the exhibition. Built in more voices with Valeria Calvino, Daniele Calzavara and the Rabbits Bianchi, collects documents, posters, newspaper articles, videos and soundtracks that outline the historical dimension, Italian politics, society and culture between 1982-1996. For to underline the unfinished nature of this reconstruction, the materials are presented on large work boards equipped with wheels, which suggest the possibility of reconfiguring the narrative. Among the historical documents, Emmanuel's interventions Yoro and Tomboys Don't Cry offering perspectives contemporary reading, underlining voids and silences. In Gran Fury poster exhibition, exhibited at the 1990 Biennale (and (for the first time since then presented in Italy) which relate to the works of Keith Haring; the blue organza curtains by Felix Gonzalez-Torres (presented at the Rivara Castle, in Turin, in 1991) coexist with the works of David Wojnarowicz and Walter Robinson, proposed in Milan by Corrado Levi in 1984. Three monographic rooms are dedicated to the work of Nino Gennaro, Francesco Torrini and Patrizia Vicinelli.
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