A competition has been launched to find an artist to create London’s first permanent Aids memorial near the former site of Middlesex Hospital which, in 1987, became the first dedicated Aids ward in the UK. The artwork will pay tribute to the lives lost during the Aids pandemic and raise awareness of the ongoing impact of HIV/Aids, says the charity behind the project, Aids Memory UK. The monument is due to be unveiled in 2026, with the winner of the competition announced in 2024. London Mayor Sadiq Khan has committed £130,000 of funding to the memorial from the city’s Commission for Diversity in the Public Realm.
AMUK’s panel of judges, which includes art historians, HIV and Aids doctors and community representatives, will choose the winning design from five shortlisted artists. The finalists are Anya Gallaccio, Ryan Gander, Harold Offeh, Shahpour Pouyan and Diana Puntar. The winner will create an artwork that honours those who died because of the Aids pandemic and pays tribute to those who fought for better care for individuals with the condition.
The charity has worked since 2016 towards building the memorial, which will commemorate Princess Diana’s visit to Middlesex Hospital, where she shook hands with an Aids patient and helped challenge the belief that the disease could be transmitted through contact. AMUK’s founder, Ash Kotak, says that the group of artists shortlisted for the tribute is “acclaimed and very inspiring” and brings “a different perspective to the memorial”.
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