Gideon Mendel is currently exhibiting A Broken Landscape as part of the exhibition Positive Lives in the South African National Gallery in Cape Town. This is his body of work depicting HIV/Aids across Africa, shot over the past decade.
From February 16 the gallery will be filled with a vibrant installation that will both challenge the images on the walls and explore new ways of depicting people living with HIV/Aids.
The key concept of this installation is that people living with HIV/Aids will be involved in its creation, deciding how they will be photographed, rather than being passively depicted as victims. Over the course of the next six weeks Mendel will be producing a series of pieces that will be progressively added to the exhibition over its duration. Each one will address a different issue relating to HIV/Aids in South Africa.