Key international figures from health, art and politics attended the opening at the University of an international art exhibition focussing on the catastrophic impact of HIV and AIDS.
More than 30 well-known artists from 10 countries contributed their own artistic interpretations of "Break the Silence" - a phrase coined during the XIII AIDS Conference in Durban in 2000 and which has now lent its name to the powerful touring show.
Dr Nono Smelela, Chief Director of the National Department of Health in South Africa, the Deputy High Commissioner for South Africa in the UK, Mr George Johannes, and the Education and Health Attaché for South Africa in the UK, Mr Sello Jelle, visited the University for the opening.
Each of the exhibition's 31 images (examples above and left) is currently being transposed into large billboards to be erected in communities throughout South Africa to promote AIDS awareness and encourage discussion on the theme "Break the Silence". The country has more people living with HIV and AIDS than any other in the world, with one in nine, nearly 5 million, of its 43 million population affected.
A "Break the Silence" artists' residency has also just been set up for young, recently graduated artists, to spend time in Scotland and South Africa. The first Resident on this scheme, Nontobeke Ntombela from Kwa Zulu Natal, has just begun a four-month period working between Dundee and the Gracefield arts centre in Dumfries and Galloway.