New Delhi, Nov 30 (IANS) Art will spread a new message with the project “I: Art Against AIDS” - a series of discussions and exhibitions spread over a year that will promote awareness about AIDS and the implications of the disease in India.
The project, a collaboration between the Religare Arts Initiative and UNAIDS - the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS - will open with a discussion Dec 1, which is World AIDS Day.

Twenty contemporary artists, both established and new, will contribute their art works for the inaugural show followed by 980 more through out the year. The subject of the 1,000 art works will be HIV/AIDS.

The works will be displayed at Religare’s Arts Gallery till Dec 11.

The list of artists include Baba Anand, Ashok Bhowmik, Rajesh Patil, Promod Gaikwad, Daina Mohapatra and Jyoti Ranjan Jena.

“We, at Religare’s Arts Initiative believe that it only takes one thought, one action and one person to make a change in life. With this project, we want to show that the medium of art can make a powerful impact. Art can change people’s life,” Mukesh Panika, director of Religare Arts Initiative, told IANS.

The works on display mostly depict the ordeal the victims face, the social stigmas attached to the disease, its causes, prevention and how to lend an sympathetic ear - in acrylic, oil, water, colour, sculptures and video interviews of a cross-section of people ranging from artists, writers, collectors, curators and the common man on their views on AIDS/HIV and “whether art can be a vehicle of social, physical and psychological regeneration”, Panika said.

The subsequent exhibitions will feature public and interactive art projects involving common people. “We aim to include one million people and 1,000 artists in our yearlong AIDS project,” he added.

The panel discussion Dec 1 will begin with a special address by Oscar Fernandes, convenor of the Parliamentary Forum on HIV/AIDS on the role of art as a medium for social regeneration and AIDS awareness, Panika said.

The panellists include Charles Gilks, country co-ordinator, UNAIDS-India, Rajeev Lochan, director of the National Gallery of Modern Art, Aman Nath, entrepreneur and historian, Anjali Gopalan, director, NAZ Foundation and artist and activist Sunil Gupta.