Ricominciare a vivere - Access to Life

Following its extraordinary success in Washington, Madrid and Oslo, the new temporary home of the photographic exhibitionn entitled “Access to life”, promoted by The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in a joint project with Magnum Photos and Contrasto, is the Ara Pacis in Rome.

“Access to life” is a moving photographic account that documents the revolutionary impact of supplying free anti-retroviral drugs to treat AIDS all over the world.

The exhibition, which is open to the public until 18 October 2009, is the result of a project that the Global Fund and Magnum Photos begun in 2007 and has been mounted in Rome thanks to funding from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the City Council of Rome's Department of Cultural and Communications policies - Superintendency for the Arts, in collaboration with publishers Contrasto, and Zètema Progetto Cultura who have provided museum services support.

In making the exhibition space in the Ara Pacis Museum available, Rome City Council wanted to show its support of the Global Fund initiative and highlight the social value of the exhibition and all that it bears witness to.

Eight top photographers were sent to nine countries to document how the lives of more than thirty people, and their respective families, have been affected by HIV. The result is a collection of moving photographs that chronicle the importance of the investment that many countries in the world are making to support the Global Fund in its relentless battle to eradicate the disease, especially in the World's poorest countries.

Under the joint curatorship of Bill Horrigan, Art Director for Ohio State University's Wexner Center for the Arts, and Yolanda Cuomo, art director, designer and teacher, the “Access to Life” exhibition features the work of the entire team of Magnum photographers involved in the project, namely Jim Goldberg, Eli Reed, Steve McCurry, Larry Towell, Jonas Bendiksen, Gilles Peress, and two Italians, Alex Majoli and Paolo Pellegrin.

Thanks to the images captured through their camera lenses, “Access to life” is effectively an illustrated story about the lives of Marie Sonie in Haiti, Oskana in St. Petersburg, Thoba in Mali, Duong in Vietnam, Juan Carlos in Peru and Satyaveni in India. They and many more like them who, thanks to the Global Fund are provided with free access to anti-retroviral drugs, symbolise the silent war being waged against HIV in five continents, and who together form a colourful mosaic of hope and rebirth.

The AIDS pandemic is one of the greatest health emergencies the world has ever had to face and it has had a particularly devastating impact on those parts of the world in which health and hygiene standards are deficient. Over the years, the Global Fund has managed to create and co-ordinate an impressive worldwide network that is able to provide help and support to millions of people who are living with AIDS, most of who would certainly be dead if they had not been able to count on a continuing supply of free anti-retroviral drugs.

To be more specific, more than 3.5 million people in 140 different countries around the world are alive today thanks to the Global Fund. More than 2.3 million patients today continue to receive free anti-retroviral drugs to treat their HIV and the Global Fund also provides the necessary support that has led to the diagnosis of some 62 million people infected by the disease, including 445,000 pregnant women who have tested HIV positive and who have been treated with drugs aimed at preventing the transmission of the virus between mother and child.

Whilst defeating the HIV virus is an objective not yet achieved, “Access to life” bears witness to just how possible it is that those affected by it can be given hope – hope that their lives can indeed improve. The proceeds from the exhibition and the “Access to Life” book that accompanies it, published by Contrast, will be donated to the Global Fund to help fund its on-going commitment to provide free treatment for those with AIDS and to raise greater awareness and sensitivity about the many facets of this terrible disease.