Barcelona LGBTI Centre is hosting the ‘Itinerantas’ exhibition, which tells the stories of seven women living with HIV. The exhibition is a CESIDA project organised in collaboration with the Gais Positius organisation and will be open until 30 September.
Àngels, Flor, Aran, Mia and Rubi are some of the exhibition’s protagonists, who tell their life stories through photo portraits and audio pieces with their accounts. The women talk about stigma, rejection, pain and silence, as well as visibility, strength, joy, overcoming and a positive outlook on life.
‘I live with HIV and this circumstance has brought hundreds of new things into my life. But this characteristic doesn’t define me: it only reflects my state of health, and it shouldn’t interfere in any other facet of my life,’ says Aran, one of the participants.
Àngels, who is also taking part, shares her reflections: ‘I like to learn and I like to teach how to live with some things I would rather not have experienced, like HIV; but I accept it and we’ve even become friends. It respects me and I respect it.’
At the exhibition, the audio recordings with these seven women’s accounts can be heard through QR codes that accompany each of the photos, which visitors can scan using their mobile phones. The materials are also available on the website itinerantas.org
The ‘Itinerantas’ exhibition is a project created as part of the ‘Mujeres Vihsibles’ programme led by the State HIV and AIDS Coordinator (CESIDA, by its acronym in Spanish), and has been funded by a grant from the Ministry of Social Rights and 2030 Agenda.
The project aims to help to empower and improve the self-concept and self-image of women living with HIV, as well as promoting overall knowledge of and reflections around the virus from a broad perspective.
It also seeks to provide the women with the technical skills they need to develop the audiovisual content themselves. At the same time, it generates support networks for the participants and fosters personal bonds between them.
The exhibition is being shown at the Barcelona LGBTI Centre thanks to collaboration from Gais Positius, and it can be visited until Saturday 30 September, with free entry, during the Centre’s opening hours:
Mondays: from 3.30 pm to 8.30 pm
Tuesdays to Fridays: from 10 am to 2 pm, and from 3.30 pm to 8.30 pm
Saturdays: from 10 am to 2 pm, and from 3 pm to 8 pm