HIV and AIDS activists from all over the world will take part in the traditional protest march during the International AIDS Conference. Before the official opening of the conference, various communities will make their voices heard, calling attention to issues such as human rights, access to medicines as well as political support and financing for the fight against HIV and AIDS.

ATLAS2018 will present a unique exhibition with stories of men and women who are living with HIV. They visited all six continents to let them speak in their own words. There will be speakers, yoga classes, a daily talk show, discussions, live recordings, parties and a showing every day of the documentary “I will Speak, I will Speak!”

A conference designed for the next generation of scientists and activists committed to end the HIV epidemic. HIV Next Gen will provoke, inspire and mobilize young adults to play an integral role in the future of HIV research, science, and healthcare. Its carefully curated program will successfully integrate science, technology and culture to create a highly interactive, educational, and skill-building event.

Photographer Marjolein Annegarn has made a series of anonymous photographs of people with HIV. The men and women are unrecognizable because these people can not be open about their HIV infection in all situations.

The stigma has a self-locking effect. Because of the stigma, there is too little public talk about HIV. That keeps the prejudices alive, so people dare not talk about it. Even worse, because of the stigma people wait too long to get tested, so the virus can continue to spread:  so stigma kills.

A performance about two young people living with HIV in Ukraine.

What is it like to live with HIV in Ukraine as a young person? What do children feel when they keep their HIV status secret from fear of stigma and discrimination? In the documentary theater play Do not tell anyone, Yana Panfilova and Dany Stolbunov provide answers to these questions.

The young activists, promoters of the youth organization Teenergizer, give a unique insight into the lives of young people with HIV in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

Free access, only after registration. The performance is in Russian, with English subtitles.

A pleasant evening with people who have been living with HIV for a long time.

The Amsterdam Museum organizes together with the Long Term Survivors group of the Hiv Association the program Meet & Greet & Eat. Long Term Survivors are people who have been infected with HIV before the advent of the combination therapy in 1996, but also those who were diagnosed with HIV in the first years after 1996. Together we watch the short film Voices of the Epidemic, share a meal and our stories about the past and present.

Free entrance

A conversation about five centuries of contagious diseases in Amsterdam.

Amsterdam has been plagued by a large number of pests and epidemics over the centuries. For example, plague epidemics had been active from the Middle Ages to the eighteenth century. In the 17th century the plague led to a large increase in the number of orphans in Amsterdam. These orphans have been taken care of in the civil orphanage, where the Amsterdam Museum is now located. The last major epidemic, AIDS, has also hit Amsterdam hard. The Aids Memorial Quilt is included in the collection of the Amsterdam Museum and other Dutch museums. Writer / researcher Annet Mooij talks to curator Annemarie de Wildt about five centuries of contagious diseases in Amsterdam during the History talk, the relation to contemporary society and the historical framework of the location; the Amsterdam Museum.

Artists from Eastern Europe and Central Asia show their vision on HIV and AIDS.

The AFEW Culture Initiative aims to create a connection, a better understanding and an enhanced dialogue between countries in the 'West' and the East European and Central Asian regions through art and culture.

The central element of the AFEW Culture Initiative is the Artist in Residence (AiR) program, in which three artists from the EECA region stay in the Netherlands for a period of three months. The artists are 'displaced' and work outside the traditional studio, gallery or museum context.

The artists present their work in the Global Village.

The pop-up Aids Expo shows you the stories of people with HIV in the Netherlands and in the rest of the world.

Are we ever going to end AIDS? Or is it an impossible task? In short: how positive are you? In the pop-up Aids Expo you can see the stories of people with HIV in the Netherlands and in the rest of the world. The stories not only stimulate thinking, but also hold a mirror for you. The pop-up expo travels through the Netherlands from May 16 until the end of July.

Out of love for all loves, Aidsfonds organizes the Tour d'Amour on Thursday 26 July from 6.30 pm in the Vondelpark. You are most welcome at this spectacular cycling moment where it is not about speed, but to fully enjoy, see and be seen. And of course to get yourself sponsored to raise as much money as possible for the testing of children and pregnant women with HIV in Zimbabwe.

What happened in Amsterdam during the heyday of the AIDS epidemic? You can see this in the City Archives.

In the exhibition Aids in Amsterdam images from the period 1981-1986, when AIDS traveled through the capital like a predator. A time in which we get to know the concept of Buddy, quilts to keep the memory of the victims alive and create extensive commemoration meetings such as the AIDS Memorial Day. The photographs in the exhibition show fear and sadness, but also love and the will to live.

On July 25, the Positive Torch will travel through Amsterdam. The torch will be worn by Nobel laureate Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, who discovered the HIV virus in the eighties and Timothy Brown, the only person who has been cured of HIV. Furthermore, people with a different HIV-age walk along. The tour ends at the DeLaMar theater, where the Positive Flame is lit during the start of the event The Power of Love.

The tour can be followed live via the internet. You can also visit one of the 37 meet & greet places where the runners pass by.

See photographs at the Museumplein in Amsterdam of people living with HIV at the edge of society.

For 'Invisible lives. HIV at the edges of society’, writer Colet van der Ven and photographer Adriaan Backer went to different parts of the world to document the experiences of people from vulnerable groups. Invisible lives provide insight into the lives of individuals on the periphery of society and how they are influenced by the stigma around HIV and AIDS.

'Voices of the Epidemic' describes the epidemic from the perspective of Long Term Survivors, health workers, partners and others who experienced the epidemic up close.

In a series of filmed interviews, they talk personally about how HIV / AIDS in the Netherlands had and has impact on different groups, and how these communities each responded to the epidemic in their own way. The aim of the project is to tell lesser known stories and thus to broaden the existing story of the history of HIV / AIDS in the Netherlands.

The film lasts about 25 minutes and has English subtitles.

On display at the Amsterdam Museum, the Global Village at the RAI, in various hospitals and online: http://www.manonparry.com/

It is a tradition that activists, organizations and people with HIV from all over the world make their voices heard during the AIDS Congress. In this way, they ask attention for issues such as access to HIV inhibitors, human rights violations, political unwillingness and lack of funding for the fight against AIDS.

This year the protest march will take place on the eve of the congress on 23 July. The theme of the march is: Towards Zero Together. The impressive march runs through the center of Amsterdam.

Practical information

Meet up: 13:00 Amstelveld, Amsterdam

Departure: 14:00

View the route of the protest march. https://www.aidsdemo2018.nl/

Free entrance

Have your scar embroidered in the Global Village.

In the Global Village artist Joost van Wijmen presents his live performance ENCOUNTER on 24 July.

ENCOUNTER makes you aware of your body. The stories that are connected with our body and the consequences that this has for social contacts. This awareness is not a choice for people living with HIV. They face the consequences of their changed body. Both for themselves and in their environment.

The visitor is part of ENCOUNTER. When visitors have shown their scar, they are asked whether the artist can copy the scar and hear the story behind the scar. The story and the embroidered scar together form an ever-growing work of art.

A documentary about five men and women who together make the history of thirty years of HIV and AIDS visible in the Netherlands.

In the documentary 'The Time After' (2013) we meet three men and two women who tell their life story. The stories together give a clear picture of how the impact of HIV differs from person to person, but also about the changes of the past 30 years.

The documentary has English subtitles

July 25 NPO2 EXTRA at 8.30 pm (53 min. - Ziggo channel 222 - KPN channel 88)