The UK AIDS Memorial Quilt, combining 42 quilts and 23 individual panels, has taken over the Tate Modern’s iconic Turbine Hall, in a moving display to coincide with Pride Month.
This moving display (and uber rare opportunity) shows us how the project has been shown outdoors as a form of protest to raise awareness for the ongoing AIDS pandemic.
This vast work has been laid out in a grid across the entire floor of the gallery’s main hall, with The UK AIDS Memorial Quilt being just one chapter of the largest community art project in the world.
The project began state-side back in the mid-1980s, when American activist Cleve Jones started inviting people to create textile panels to commemorate the friends, family and loved ones they lost to AIDS.
These individual panels became quilts, which were then used as a form of protest to raise awareness about HIV and AIDS. In the late 1980s, Scottish activist Alastair Hume visited San Francisco, where he witnessed an early display of the quilt, inspiring the activist to start creating a British alternative – just like many countries across the globe.
One of its largest public showings was the ‘Quilts of Love’ display in June 1994 at Hyde Park Corner, presenting selected panels from the US and the UK, alongside sections created by fashion designers. That is, until now…
Today it stands as an important reminder of those who were lost, and of the fact that HIV and AIDS continue to affect people and communities today, and you can go and check it out right now at the Tate Modern.
Siobhán Lanigan from the UK AIDS Memorial Quilt Partnership said, “The purpose of our partnership is to have the Quilt seen as often as possible in as many places as possible. The display in the Turbine Hall marks the largest showing of the UK Quilt in its history, reaching the biggest audience it has ever known.”
There are even events to coincide with the installation, including a documentary screening exploring the project, as well as a reading of all the names with poetry and choir arrangements. For more information on the exhibition and the events that coincide, click here.
There’s even more LGBTQIA-focused events and exhibitions at the Tate, including their Leigh Bowery! exhibit and LGBTQ+ tours of their collection. To learn more, visit their website.
You can witness the UK AIDS Memorial Quilt at the Tate Modern until Monday, 16 June 2025.