As I mentioned in a previous post, there seemed to be a lot of visual arts components of the AIDS conference, whether it was aimed at raising awareness or used as an income generating activity for people living with AIDS.

My favourite!

Graffiti ribbon in the Youth Booth, part of the Global Village

The Empower project’s Kumjing dolls from Thailand traveled to Mexico to raise awareness of migrant workers.

Outside of the conference, at the cultural centre in Zocalo, there was a great exhibit on migration. Migration is a significant factor in the spread of AIDS.

The centre also exhibited a public health project for rural women — participants were given a disease to study and then had to make a larger-than-life crafty representation.

The Bead for Life booth in the Global Village had bustling sales of their paper necklaces made by poor women in Uganda.

Fancy Stitch is another income generating project for low income women in South Africa with amazing AIDS-based needle work. It doesn’t look like you can buy these ones, but they’ve got other products for sale online.

One of the friends I made a the conference from the large Canadian contingent works on Body Mapping where HIV positive people use self portraits to explore their status.