Posters
have proven their effectiveness throughout challenges to like
wars, epidemics and armed conflicts. The second millennium has
given us one more challenge – HIV/AIDS. The images of
hearts, condoms, red ribbons and others presented at the International
“AntiAIDS” Poster exhibition in Kharkov, Ukraine
not only give us an international language of images depicted
in a non-typical form of mass art, but also provides a sense
of the power of communication when it comes to mobilizing humanity.
The first case of HIV infection was registered in Ukraine only
a year after the most well-known nuclear accident in the world,
the Chernobyl tragedy. As the saying goes, “When it rains,
it pours”. Today Ukraine shows the most rapid spread of
HIV/AIDS in Eastern Europe, more than 1,4% of Ukrainians are
HIV-positive, including over 10 000 children.
Changing attitudes
The poster competition was initiated by the Ukrainian Red Cross
Kharkiv regional Branch together with Chervona Strichka Charitable
Foundation. It aimed at attracting the Ukrainian and world community’s
attention to problem of HIV/AIDS in Ukraine, in particular to
the social and psychological consequences of this phenomenon.
Furthermore, the goal was to show the real scales of the epidemic
and the necessity to work on the general attitudes towards people
living with HIV/AIDS in order to increase tolerance and understanding.
The competition was judged by an international team of leading
designers. One of the members of the jury was Rene Wanner from
Switzerland. “The competition gathered 230 works from
15 countries of the world,” he said. “But the most
important thing is not the sheer number, but that among the
participants are not only young designers but also professional
designers and painters of other generations. This is important
because HIV/AIDS is not only the problem of the young. This
is the problem of people of all races, ages and professions;
of all communities,” he emphasized.
Using design to understand
Designers are frequently called upon to overcome social barriers
such as intolerance, stigma and discrimination. Vladimir Pogorelchuk,
Head of the Kharkov’s Designers Union Governing Board,
shared his professional attitude towards the problem:
“We, designers cannot be indifferent to the fate of our
earthly home. The design main priorities are to introduce beauty,
order and comfort into the life of ordinary people,” he
underlined.
The organizers of the competition see this exhibit as a tool
to understand what HIV/AIDS is and who the people living with
HIV/AIDS are. Viewers should come away with knowledge based
on the messages repeated over and over in the posters, thus
gaining a basic understanding of HIV/AIDS.
Wide distribution
“To prevent is always cheaper than to treat,” underlines
Eugene Bashkirov, Head of Kharkiv Red Cross Regional Branch.
He said that the 2005-2006 competition has laid the basis of
a poster collection and video library on the challenges of HIV/AIDS.
The material will be used when meeting with youth, schoolchildren,
students and general public through activities such as the candle
march and exhibitions in movie theatres, sport centers, night
clubs and palaces of culture. It will also be showed on the
trains, at the railway stations, in the underground, electronic
shops, on light-boards along the central streets of Kharkov,
and even distributed freely on disks providing materials on
the subject of HIV/AIDS prevention. “Each of these activities
is a small brick in the growing wall, preventing the epidemic
from spreading,” Bashkirov said
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Collage
of the exhibition.
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Winning
poster by Maja Wolna from Poland:"No one should imagine
that we can protect ourselves by building barriers between
us and them. In the ruthless world of AIDS, there is no
us and them. (Kofi Annan)"
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"Isolation"
by Masahito Koga, Japan.
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