Photo opportunity, 5.05pm, Friday October 18, Lamb Gallery, Tower Building, University of Dundee. BREAK THE SILENCE private view. Exhibition preview for Press available from Thursday, October 17. Please contact Press Office.
An international art exhibition focussing on the catastrophic impact of HIV and AIDS and which aims to prompt open discussion of the issue around the world is to open in Scotland this week at the University of Dundee with key international figures from health, art and politics.
More than thirty well-known artists from 10 countries, brought together by the award-winning South Africa-based Artists for Human Rights organisation, have 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.
This Friday, October 18, Dr Nono Smelela, Chief Director of the National Department of Health in South Africa will give a public lecture at the University on living with HIV in South Africa. 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.
Following the lecture, Professor Emeritus Richard Demarco OBE will open the exhibition's private view with a talk entitled "The Importance of Collaboration Between the Arts and the Sciences". Each of the exhibition's 31 images 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".
Other special guests on Friday include 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.
The exhibition's Scotland visit has been made possible by a collaboration between the University's Duncan of Jordanstone School of Art & Design, Artists for Human Rights, the Department of Fine Art of the Durban Institute of Technology, and Gracefield Art Centre, Dumfries.
The collaboration has also inspired the development of a "Break the Silence" Artists' Residency 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 Dumfries and Galloway. The Residency is funded through the University of Dundee, Dumfries and Galloway Council, The National Arts Council of South Africa, and British Council Visiting Arts.
Arthur Watson from the University's School of Fine Art, said, "The School of Fine Art is pleased to bring the "Breaking The Silence" print portfolio to Dundee and to host Nontobeke Ntombela as our printmaker in residence.
"Every year, as can be seen in our Degree Exhibition, there are students whose studio practice reflects their social and humanitarian concerns. The portfolio exhibited here shows how artists from many countries can work together with a common aim using the power of print media for the wider dissemination of their ideas and their hopes for the future."
Jan Jordaan, Director, Artists for Human Rights said, "Art has a role in human rights advocacy and, in the case of this exhibition, the focus is on HIV/AIDS as a human rights issue - particularly in the developing world but not exclusively so."
Scots artist Alex Flett, whose work is featured and who was instrumental in bringing 'Break the Silence" to Scotland said, "What the images do in billboard form is to use the psychology of the art gallery, where the viewer says , 'What's that about?', but in the space normally reserved for advertising.
"The HIV/AIDS pandemic in sub Saharan Africa is so severe that it is no longer only a medical and scientific problem, but a social, economic, and cultural problem also. In other words you can no longer separate it from life. Cultural activities have a significant part to play in raising awareness of and the war against AIDS."
BREAK THE SILENCE
18 October - 16 November 2002, Lamb Gallery, University of Dundee, Tower Building, Nethergate, Dundee. Mon-Fri 9.00 am- 8.30 pm, Sat 9.00 pm - 4.30 pm
EXHIBITION PRIVATE VIEW
Professor Emeritus Richard Demarco OBE: The importance of collaboration between the arts and the sciences. 18 October 5.00 pm - 7.00 pm Lamb Gallery, University of Dundee.
LECTURE: HIV IN SOUTH AFRICA Dr Nono Smelela, Chief Director of the National Department of Health in South Africa.
18 October 3.00 pm-4.15 pm Tower Building Extension Lecture Theatre
By Jane Smernicki, Press Officer 01382 344768 j.m.smernicki@dundee.ac.uk