Vienna
Austria
Novaragasse 40 Austrian AIDS Memorial Quilt since 1 December 1992
370 names
Since the Fall of 1992 there is a NAMES Project in Austria, too. It was initiated privately by people who had lost partners, sons and daughters and friends to AIDS. They wanted to break the silence by expressing their love for these people with panels memorializing their loved-ones. In Austria, too, AIDS should have a face, a name, and lose its stigma and horror.
When Friedl Nussbaumer’s partner in life, Michael Handl, died due to AIDS on June 19, 1992, it was self-evident to Nussbaumer that he wanted to memorialize his lover. He was aware of the NAMES Project in the US and found dedicated people among his friends and at HOSI Wien, the LGBT organization of Vienna, who joined him sewing memorial panels. Peter Holub, a tailor who had recently lost two friends to AIDS himself, provided his shop and know-how to the NAMES Project.
This tailor shop was a meeting place for friends dealing with grief - where they designed and, with professional help, sewed, embroidered, ironed and painted fabric. Dignified, modest panels were developed as well as festive, colorful ones, depending on the character of the decedent and of those who commemorated him with a very individualized piece of amateur art. Until the summer of 1994 meetings were held regularly at Peter Holub‘s tailor shop. Due to the success of new treatment methods, since then work at the shop is resumed only when needed.
Since 1992 Brigitte Zika-Holoubek and Friedl Nussbaumer are in charge of the NAMES Project Vienna which is organized as a task force of HOSI Vienna. Until 2010 ninety-six panels have been created; respectively eight panels combine to make up 12 quilt squares. More than 360 names of decedents keep the memorial alive. The Austrian Quilt gets presented regularly on AIDS Memorial Day, World AIDS Day and at the occasion of Gay Pride. Based on the American model the panels are spread ceremoniously and the names are read out by those left behind.

NAMES Project Wien, Homosexuelle Initiative Wien