40 years of fight against AIDS
Tuesday 16 November 2021
In view of World AIDS Day on 1 December, UniCredit is one of the top sponsors of the exhibition "40 anni positivi (40 positive years) - from the AIDS pandemic to an HIV-free generation”, on show in Milan from 12 November to 5 December.
Exactly 40 years after the publication in the New York Times of the first article detailing the arrival of a new and unknown disease later identified as AIDS, the Galleria dei Frigoriferi Milanesi is hosting the exhibition "40 anni positivi (40 positive years). From the AIDS pandemic to an HIV-free generation", with the support of UniCredit as top sponsor.
The exhibition presents an extensive archive of documents, posters, works of art and advertising campaigns that tell the story of the great revolution in treatment and the development of scientific research which, thanks to the civil society resistance movements that began in the United States in the early 1980s and then spread to Europe and Italy, has seen its course radically changed towards a participatory and proximity-based medicine.
A dedicated space of the exhibition shows an immersive installation of the Names Project AIDS Memorial Quilt (The Names Blanket).
The project, based on an idea by Cleve Jones, presents the creation of fabric panels on which thoughts and drawings have been printed to commemorate friends and family members who have died of AIDS and had difficulty in receiving a funeral ceremony.
A significant installation at the end of the exhibition is dedicated to the visual representation of the scientific studies known as “Partner 1 and 2”, published in 2016 and 2019, which show that the risk of transmission during unprotected sexual intercourse with HIV-positive people undergoing treatment is ZERO. A message summarised in the formula U=U, "Undetectable Equal Untransmittable".
For us at UniCredit, supporting this exhibition is a valuable opportunity to underline our ongoing commitment to creating a positive and inclusive working environment in which we can all excel and actively contribute to the success of the Bank, by leveraging diversity, equity and inclusion.
This is also how we are preparing for 1 December when, on the occasion of #WorldAIDSDAY, the UniCredit Tower spire will light up the sky over Milan in red, to help raise awareness of the global AIDS epidemic caused by the spread of the HIV virus and the possible solutions at our disposal to defeat it and achieve a zero-infection world by 2030.