1981. Amsterdam is the gay capital of the world. Everything is possible and everything is allowed. But then a gay man is hospitalized seriously ill. The doctors have no idea what is going on and soon the man dies. He was the first AIDS patient in the Netherlands, according to the AIDS exhibition in Amsterdam.
The consequences of AIDS and the fight against this deadly disease were very visible in Amsterdam. The disease, which was transmitted from America, first manifested itself in our capital in 1981 and half of all Dutch men who were HIV-positive lived in Amsterdam. It was even the leading cause of death among Amsterdam men between the ages of thirty and forty-five in the early 1990s. Fear gripped the city and doctors feared an epidemic of unprecedented proportions.
Pill cocktail
As of today, a small photo exhibition can be seen in the Amsterdam City Archives:'Aids in Amsterdam'. “This was an important period for the city with a special story,” says Ludger Smit. He is head of presentation of the City Archives.
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The exhibition shows what caused AIDS in Amsterdam between 1981 and 1996. This was the year that combination therapy became the standard treatment against HIV. This pill cocktail ensures that the HIV virus no longer develops into the deadly disease AIDS.
Smit made the exhibition for anyone interested in this story, but especially for the relatives. “I think they will recognize and acknowledge a lot in this.” The exhibition, which is set up in the central hall of the City Archives, consists of seven screens with images on both sides. These come from our own archive, from authorities and in some cases from private individuals.
“It was quite a search to find suitable material to tell this story. A call among private individuals to make photos available has not yielded much," says Smit.
Moving
A few quilts hang above the screens with photos. These huge handmade cloths consist of several pieces of cloth on which the names of and personal messages for AIDS victims are embroidered. Smit:“Hanging up these quilts moved me enormously, then it suddenly came very close. There is also something touching about those homemade embroidery. They are a nice counterpart to the hard steel constructions in which the photo screens hang.”
Smit does not pretend to convey an underlying message with the exhibition. Above all, he wants to tell the story and show that this period of fear and suffering also produced beautiful things. The urge to survive, compassion and the mass commemoration of the deceased, among other things through those colorful quilts, are examples of this.
Flamboyant information
The exhibition takes you on a journey through time. From the beginning, when that terrible disease struck and people died quickly. The fear that took hold and the response from authorities and the government through information. The Dutch approach consisted of informing as broad a public as possible, in order to combat the stigmatization of homosexuals. In other countries, on the other hand, information was much more focused on risk groups:gay men, prostitutes and drug addicts (because of contaminated blood on used needles).
Smit:“The Dutch approach became world famous, but was it also the best? There is still discussion about that. But it suited our open culture, especially in those progressive times.” In addition, gay men and drug users also actively fought AIDS.
This happened in a flamboyant way, for example by homosexuals in spicy suits handing out condoms in gay clubs. Despite the fear and sadness these men had to deal with, the photos radiate joy in life. Maybe that's exactly why. If they do go to the buttons, then with a bang!
Death bed
Once ill you can see what the consequences were for AIDS patients. In addition to misery, they also found support, for example in the specially equipped hospital wards. “I wanted to include the famous photo series with Henk Koers in the hospital because he was one of the champions for a broader understanding of AIDS victims and their suffering. Koers was a drug addict and had contracted HIV through the use of an infected needle.”
In the photos you can see how Koers gets thinner and further deteriorates. The last photo of the series is of his deathbed, which is quite confronting. “This photo marks the transition to the next screen, on which we show the new funeral culture that emerged with the death of these often still young people. The relatives and friends from the gay scene organized unprecedentedly extravagant funerals where those present really celebrated life.”
The end
The exhibition covers the period up to 1996, but on the last screen the makers look a little further. Towards, for example, the development of PrEP, a preventive agent against HIV infection. The story of Professor Joep Lange can also be read. This physician has devoted his entire career to AIDS and was one of the first scientists to experiment with pill cocktails instead of a single drug.
Lange died in 2014, as one of the occupants of the plane MH17 that had been shot down. With that, he was on his way to Melbourne, where the biennial International AIDS Congress was held. “The same conference will take place in Amsterdam at the end of July. This is a great opportunity to show the story of this deadly disease in our city.” The exhibition can be seen until September 2, 2018.