A bus covered with messages

RELATED LINKS: Visitors flock to Constitution Hill CONSTITUTION Hill, in Braamfontein, is fast becoming one of Johannesburg's most popular tourist attractions, with an average of 171 visitors each day. Read more HIV/Aids awareness campaign launched THE City of Johannesburg unveiled a five-day HIV/Aids awareness campaign under which thousands of volunteers will take to the streets of Johannesburg. Read more Thousands benefit from Mayoral Aids Fund AS many as 3 000 people have already benefited from the Mayoral Aids Fund, which is a year old. The fund distributes food to the needy and supports people affected by and infected with HIV. Read more City focuses on wellness plan THE City has a comprehensive wellness programme for its HIV-positive employees that includes counselling, treatment and moral support. Read more

A body map on exhibition Sharing the message

Memory Project explores effects of Aids Young HIV-positive Joburgers have put together an exhibition at Constitution Hill, telling of the effect the virus has had on their lives. May 9, 2006 By Emmanuel Mulaudzi THE untold stories about the effect HIV and Aids has on the lives of Joburgers are being brought to life in an art exhibition at the Women's Jail on Constitution Hill. Memory Project, the exhibition, opened earlier this month and runs until the 30 May. It can be viewed between 8.30am and 5.30pm. Funded by the European Union in partnership with Constitution Hill, Memory Project aims to depict the effects of HIV and Aids through art. The art was produced by participants in a project to promote and support "the rights and dignity of those affected by and living with HIV and Aids", according to the exhibition co-ordinator, Clement Masemola. The 13 participants, aged from 16 to 26, are all HIV-positive. "The project supports individuals as they confront fear and discrimination," Masemola explains. This is done through a therapeutic process of making memory boxes and body maps, and through interviews. Participants created memory boxes As part of Memory Project, participants completed a two-month workshop conducted by artists Clive van der Berg and Churchill Madikida. Their art ranges from depictions of buses plastered with newspaper headlines, to cattle skins with condoms stuck to them, to written messages to teach viewers about HIV and Aids. Interspersed between the artworks are the participants' stories, recorded during the exhibition's launch by Teaching Screens Productions, a television and film company. Chris Hani-Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto will also support the participants by providing therapy, medication and regular counselling, Masemola adds. The exhibition has attracted the attention of local and foreign visitors to Constitution Hill. "It is good because it creates an awareness about HIV and Aids," says Anne Robins, a Scottish tourist at Constitution Hill. It is on at the Women's Jail at Constitution Hill, 1 Kotze Street, Braamfontein, in the Temporary Exhibition space. For more information contact Clement Masemola, the exhibition co-ordinator, on 011 381 3100. Permission to use web site material Publishers may use material from this site free of charge, as long as: Credit is given to either the "City of Johannesburg website (www.joburg.org.za)" or to "Johannesburg News Agency (www.joburg.org.za)"; If the article is used online, a link is provided to the original article on this website; The name of the article's author is acknowledged; The webmaster is informed of how and where the material is used (fill in this brief online form). Johannesburg News Agency is operated by BIG Media at 011-484-1400 Print this Page E-mail this article to a friend Help using Joburg.org.za