On World AIDS Day, that was observed on Monday, Alliance Francaise de Delhi and the United Nations curated an afternoon filled with activities to educate people about the disease.
The artists, performers and film-makers through their works conveyed the scientific advances made, laws framed, and discrimination faced by those suffering from the disease.
A show of hands by members of the audience before the start of a street theatre performance revealed that although much has been done to educate people about HIV and AIDS, many seem to have only half knowledge about the disease. Be.artsy, a theatre group, performed a play to clear the air that was entertaining yet informative.
Artists set up stations across the cultural centre to artistically send a message about the disease.
Tahir Siddiqui who paints a lot in support of various causes was working on a canvas that represented a baby in a womb. He said he was choosing to highlight an unborn child as it was very sad that the disease affects someone that is yet to be come into the world.
“An innocent child may be born unwell for no fault of his or hers which is something that hurts me as it gets passed onto a new generation,” he said.
Artist Seema Pandey chose to highlight the various layers of an affected person’s psyche with a work of art that she created with a knife. She gave the work many layers of colour to highlight the many veils under which people are forced to hide. “I read somewhere recently about an incident in which a man suffering from AIDS got extremely violent and forced himself onto a girl. This mood caused due to social stigma is what I am attempting to highlight,” she said.
One of the most interesting works was by Manmeet who used Multani Mitti as a canvas to create a work using her hair that she was cutting and sticking on the mud. She used her stands of hair to write out a short poem on AIDS.
There were also a number of films screened to further educate people so that by 2030 the world would be free from the disease.
