exhibitions

HIV/AIDS: Global challenge, global responsibility

Multi-media exhibition in the Langhans Gallery
(Vodičkova 6, Praha 1), April 28 – May 8
Open daily 9:00-21:00, Coffee House for festival guests,
Free Admission.

Jan Šibík – I Still Want to Live

Chci ješte žít

The exhibition of well-known photographer Jan Šibík, the recipient of the prestigious award from World Press Photo, continues the tradition of accompanying exhibitions that are organized by People in Need as a part of the One World International Film Festival. The collection, entitled I Still Want to Live, documents the difficult situation of people infected with the HIV virus and suffering from AIDS in the Ukrainian city of Odessa. It captures the catastrophic conditions in which the sick individuals live and die without basic medicine, which could often extend their lives by a few years, or at least allow them to die with dignity. In Odessa the extent of the spread of AIDS is crossing the threshold of a true epidemic – The number of HIV positive individuals is one hundred thousand, a reality that is unparalleled in Europe.

 

Geert van Kesteren – Aids in Zambia

AIDS v Zambii

Geert van Kesteren is a photo-journalist from the Netherlands, and author of the book "Mwendanjangula, AIDS in Zambia". These photographs received numerous international awards and were often published in magazines throughout the world. Van Kesteren has also worked for UNICEF, Newsweek, Stern and other magazines and organizations.

 

Steps for the Future – Documentary films

Steps for the Future

The series Steps for the Future is one of the most interesting documentary film projects of the last several years. It started on the basis of cooperation between South African directors and students of film directing, AIDS activists, and individuals infected with the HIV virus. The emerging documentary films were later shown on television stations in a number of European countries and to a much larger audience at a number of festivals, which significantly contributed to the awareness of the extent of the epidemic that Sub-Saharan Africa is fighting against. In South Africa itself this series became one of the key tools of a campaign which had the goal of persuading the South African government to change its policies towards AIDS and provide sick individuals with access to medicine.

The exhibition was supported by the Embassy of the Netherlands, HIVOS, and the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs of Switzerland.

 

Être – Pictures of Human Rights

Bytí — Obrazy lidských práv

Langhans Gallery, April 27 – May 8 Open daily 9:00-21:00,
Coffee House for festival guests, Free Admission.

Various depictions of human rights violations are on display at this exhibition of photographs by the prestigious Parisian agency Magnum Photos. Is it necessary that the life expectancy of an Angolan woman is 44 years less than that of a French woman? Is it possible to achieve an equal position without education? Is it humane to live in a cardboard box? These and other questions are posed by the photographer, who has organized the work into thirteen thematic units.

The collection was assembled for the Human Rights Exhibition ętre in Geneva, organized on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the UN Commission for Human Rights. The exhibition was organized by the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs of Switzerland.

 

It is our problem as well

Fotografie žen veznu Kubánského jara

Photographs of prisoners's wifes from the Cuban Spring.
Světozor Cinema (Vodičkova 41, Praha 1), April 27 – May 5, 2005

In the middle of March 2003, seventy-five representatives of the democratic opposition, as well as independent newspaper journalists, librarians and human rights advocates were arrested in Cuba. This unprecedented wave of repression was intended to go unnoticed by the world's public. At the time, the world's attention was fixed on the events in Iraq, where several hours earlier the war had begun. Less than two months later the arrested activists were sentenced to prison for an average of twenty years during hastily staged trials.
Photographer Alexander Polo examines the lives of the family members of these prisoners of consciousness. They are often exposed to daily repression and harassment from the government offices, sometimes they even struggle with the hatred within their surroundings. It is not only the prisoners themselves, but also their family members who belong among the victims of the repression.