Activism, Care and Defiance: London Exhibition Celebrates HIV Community Resilience

A fresh show at the Wellcome Collection in London is celebrating the activism and resilience of HIV communities, exploring how protest and care have transformed the rights and dignity of those living with the condition. Titled Tenderness and Rage, the show draws together striking artefacts spanning decades—from images of a large “die-in” staged by Aids activists in Trafalgar Square in the 1990s to hand-sewn textile works by women living with HIV. The exhibition reveals how different groups impacted by HIV, including gay men, women of colour, and asylum seekers across the UK and worldwide, discovered community, support and connection through activism and community support services during one of modern history’s most devastating pandemics.

From Emergency to Solidarity: The 1990s Aids Epidemic in the Capital

The exhibition begins by exploring the Aids crisis in London in the early 1990s, a period marked by profound loss, stigma and widespread discrimination against those living with HIV. A documentary titled Dancing Whilst Diagnosed chronicles the Landmark, a groundbreaking drop-in service situated in Tulse Hill, south London, which served as a crucial sanctuary for individuals living with HIV and Aids. Through conversations with former staff and volunteers, the film demonstrates how these dedicated workers supported individuals navigating the violence, shame and social exclusion that came with a diagnosis in this turbulent period.

Yet concurrent with the documented suffering, the exhibition captures an equally significant narrative: the extraordinary joy and solidarity that emerged within these communities. The Landmark became far more than a clinical support service—it transformed into a vibrant social hub where people could authentically express themselves. Former visitors recall attending events with DJs, drag performers and African music, spaces where they could mark moments of joy and togetherness without fear of stigma or disclosure. These moments of lightness and community proved as essential for endurance as any clinical treatment.

Safe Spaces and Community Support

Marc Thompson, a ex-service user who later became instrumental in HIV prevention and sexual health work, speaks movingly about the Landmark’s importance. “It was the sole location that I felt really safe about my HIV,” he remembers. “I didn’t have to disclose it to anybody. There was no speculation or concealment, so that genuinely assisted me manage those early years of my own diagnosis.” For Thompson and many people, the centre provided not merely practical assistance but psychological sanctuary—a uncommon space where people could exist genuinely without secrecy or stigma.

Thompson’s perspective on the exhibition’s title captures the complex emotional landscape of the 1990s Aids crisis. “We were so wounded and broken by everything that we were going through that the rage came out through protest or through loss,” he explains. “The tenderness resonated with me because of places like the Landmark. That was a place that we could go to get some of that rage soothed and looked after and be cared for and given a balm.” This balance between moral outrage and caring compassion defined the era’s activism.

• The Landmark community hub provided essential assistance for HIV-positive people in south London.
• Secure environments enabled people to share their status free from concerns about discrimination or judgment.
• Community gatherings showcasing music and performance fostered connection and mutual support among service users.
• Activist networks channelled grief and anger into campaigning efforts demanding systemic change.

Addressing Corporate Greed and Drug Industry Abuse

The display addresses a particularly contentious chapter in the Wellcome Trust’s institutional history through a specially curated display showcasing photographs, press reports and posters documenting Act UP’s sustained advocacy against the prohibitive pricing of AZT, the initial successful HIV treatment. When the drug was released, its extraordinarily high price made it unavailable to the vast majority of those affected by HIV, converting a potential lifeline into a luxury commodity available only to the wealthy. This inequality crystallised the movement’s recognition that the HIV epidemic was not merely a health crisis but fundamentally a crisis of inequality and commercial profiteering.

Act UP’s confrontation with pharmaceutical companies represented a watershed moment in activist strategy, demonstrating that those living with disease held both the moral authority and tactical sophistication to confront multinational corporations. The group’s direct actions and shareholder activism compelled uncomfortable conversations about profit margins, patent protections and the ethics of charging for essential drugs. By highlighting the experiences and experiences of those affected by HIV in these debates, activists reframed pharmaceutical pricing as a human rights issue rather than purely an economic one, creating frameworks that would shape drug access campaigns for decades to come.

Act UP’s Shareholder Engagement Strategy

Act UP pioneered novel protest methods that went further than street demonstrations to infiltrate corporate boardrooms and shareholder meetings. Activists bought corporate stock specifically to gain legitimate access to corporate governance meetings, where they could confront executives directly about drug pricing and insist on transparency. This two-pronged strategy—pairing external pressure with internal advocacy—demonstrated significant impact, compelling drug manufacturers to work alongside activists and ultimately accept their duty to people living with HIV worldwide.

• Activists acquired shares to participate in shareholder meetings and confront executives face-to-face.
• Public protests paired with corporate infiltration generated sustained institutional pressure.
• Campaign successfully linked drug pricing to broader human rights and equality concerns.

Celebrating People By Way of Photography and Portraiture

Beyond activism and protest, the exhibition demonstrates how visual documentation served as a powerful tool for affirming the humanity and dignity of people living with HIV. Photographs and portraiture throughout the show challenge the dehumanising narratives that dominated press coverage during the height of the Aids crisis, when those affected were often portrayed as victims or statistics rather than complex individuals with agency, creativity and resilience. By centering the faces and stories of people living with the disease, these artistic interventions reasserted narrative control from medical institutions and sensationalist journalism.

The curatorial approach acknowledges that representation itself forms a form of activism and care. When photographers and artists captured the experiences of people living with HIV—whether at community gatherings, support services or personal moments—they produced a visual archive that affirmed presence and inclusion during a time of significant social rejection. These photographs served multiple functions simultaneously: they offered proof of community support, kept alive the memory of those who died from HIV, and offered modern audiences a more nuanced comprehension of what life with HIV truly involved outside of medical or stigmatised perspectives.

The Ward Collection and Their Lasting Impact

Photographic series documenting hospital departments and care settings reveal the convergence of therapeutic practice and human connection during the health crisis. These images capture scenes of compassion between healthcare workers and patients, illustrating how hospital environments could simultaneously represent both the violence of disease and the capacity of compassionate care. The visual evidence demonstrates that even within the constraints of clinical spaces, relationships of sincere assistance and dignity could develop, challenging stories that simplified hospital journeys to strictly medical or sorrowful matters.

The legacy of ward photography transcends historical documentation into contemporary practice. By creating visual standards for portraying HIV-positive individuals with respect and complexity, these photographers influenced how later practitioners address representation of illness and disability. Their work demonstrates that careful, ethical portraiture can function as a counter to dehumanising medical language whilst at the same time building contexts where fragility and resilience function as inherent aspects of human life rather than conflicting positions.

• Visual records documented clinical environments with focus on personal connection and respect.
• Image collections preserved moments in time whilst challenging stigmatising media narratives about HIV.
• Respectful representation established a benchmark for representing illness with respect and complexity.

Viewpoints Throughout the World: Current HIV Advocacy

The exhibition goes further than historical retrospection to demonstrate how HIV activism continues to evolve globally, with communities across continents developing fresh strategies to advocacy, care and solidarity. Contemporary activists expand on the groundwork laid during the 1990s epidemic, adapting strategies to address ongoing disparities in access to treatment, ongoing stigma and the particular difficulties facing marginalised populations. The show demonstrates that the struggle for equality and justice remains critically important, with activists across the globe using innovative methods ranging from online initiatives to community-led activism that echo the defiant spirit of earlier movements.

Refugee communities, women of colour and other groups heavily impacted by HIV feature prominently in the exhibition’s current displays, demonstrating how activism connects to broader struggles for social justice and systemic change. These accounts reveal that HIV activism cannot be separated from anti-racism work, immigration reform advocacy and gender equality movements. The exhibition showcases how communities convert personal experiences of diagnosis into coordinated political activism, establishing networks of shared solidarity that challenge both medical organisations and governmental indifference whilst creating alternative models of care based on community knowledge and lived experience.

Maternal Stories and Body Reclamation

A especially powerful element of the exhibition showcases testimonies and creative works from HIV-positive women who have transformed their experiences into acts of creative defiance and bodily affirmation. Hand-stitched textile works created during workshops—including plushie representations of breasts, vulvas and lips—assert ownership of female bodies from medical commodification and stigmatising narratives. These intimate craft objects operate as declarations of self-worth and community care, asserting that HIV-positive women’s bodies deserve tenderness, celebration and visibility rather than shame or erasure.

The maternal stories section specifically addresses how women affected by HIV navigate motherhood, medical surveillance and social stigma. Participants recount the deep sense of loneliness of getting diagnosed whilst pregnant, alongside the determination to build healthy families and challenge assumptions about disease transmission and parental capacity. By amplifying women’s perspectives and creative expression, the exhibition validates experiences frequently marginalised within HIV narratives that have historically prioritised gay male perspectives, ensuring that the complete range of community resilience receives acknowledgement and praise.

• Hand-stitched textile works restore female bodies from clinical dehumanisation and stigma.
• Contemporary activists build upon 1990s foundations whilst tackling persistent worldwide disparities.
• Community-focused support models challenge institutional approaches and recognise collective resilience.

Why This Background Remains Important in Modern Times

The endurance shown in Tenderness and Rage delivers vital guidance for modern HIV activism and public health efforts. As new variants develop and access to treatment remains unequal across the world, the exhibition demonstrates how community-driven care and community organising have historically catalysed progress where institutional responses proved inadequate. The strategies deployed by activists in the 1990s—from direct action aimed at pharmaceutical companies to the creation of protective spaces like the Landmark—continue to be pertinent models for addressing current health inequities. By investigating how excluded communities organised collectively during hardship, the display provides a blueprint for present-day movements demanding dignity, social justice and equitable healthcare access.

Furthermore, the exhibition confronts ongoing discrimination that continues to affect people living with HIV today. By centring the voices, creative expression and human dignity of those directly impacted by the epidemic, it counters dehumanising narratives and clinical detachment that have historically silenced communities. The representation of women’s stories, refugees’ challenges, and people of colour’s intersectional activism helps widen public comprehension beyond restrictive depictions. This historical reclamation proves essential as new generations come into contact with HIV, guaranteeing they inherit not shame or fear, but knowledge of their communities’ exceptional ability for care, collective resistance and communal joy.

• Community-centred care models remain important options beyond institutional healthcare systems.
• Grassroots movements keeps advancing pharmaceutical policy and treatment availability gains.
• Prioritising underrepresented communities addresses ongoing discrimination facing today’s HIV-affected communities.
• Historical knowledge empowers today’s and tomorrow’s generations to create just health structures.