The Centro per l’arte contemporanea Luigi Pecci di Prato presents, from Saturday, October 4, 2025, to Sunday, March 1, 2026, VIVONO. Art and Affections, HIV-AIDS in Italy. 1982-1996 curated by Michele Bertolino. This is the first institutional exhibition that reassembles the forgotten history of Italian artists affected by the HIV-AIDS crisis. Artworks, poems, soundscapes, and videos are combined with archival materials and personal memories to outline a possible path that spans the years from 1982 to 1996 – from the first reported case of AIDS in Italy to the arrival of antiretroviral therapies – restoring the urgency and uniqueness of that time.

The exhibition, of which Intesa Sanpaolo is a Partner, is presented in the historic rooms of Centro Pecci, which between 1992 and 1994, proposed numerous exhibition, cultural, and social activities to combat the stigma and misinformation surrounding AIDS and which now preserves in Eccentrica, the permanent exhibition of the collection, Commemuro (1993), a work by Francesco Torrini in memory of friends who died due to AIDS. VIVONO acknowledges this genealogy and is realized together with a scientific committee, composed of curators, archivists, and activists committed to reading the HIV-AIDS crisis with a contemporary perspective.

The exhibition path opens with a film production created for the occasion also thanks to the support of Candy and commissioned to Roberto Ortu, in close conversation with the curator. In the film, the poems of Dario Bellezza, Massimiliano Chiamenti, Nino Gennaro, Ottavio Mai, La Nina, Marco Sanna, and Pier Vittorio Tondelli, poets who lived with HIV and narrated it in their texts, are read by actresses, activists, and artists. Their words, a space for confession or living flesh that is touched and kissed, come to life and plunge into the fabric of contemporary daily life. It is a reflection on love and affection that asks: how do we love together?