Claudia Lomoschitz

HEALTH INVESTMENT

Video Installation

Doing the Dirty Work, Group Exhibition, Wienwoche,
Curated by: Amalija Stojsavljević and Anežka Jabůrková
Semmelweisklinik 2022

The video work examines the emptied architecture of Semmelweis Clinic, one of the first clinics dedicated to women’s health solely. The pavilions have been constructed from 1908 till 1910, as state orphanage of lower Austria, where in 1909 the first existing human milk bank, preserving breast milk for infants in need, was established. The Semmelweis clinic for women’s health was established in these buildings in 1943. It operated for 76 years as influential health center for women. For centuries woman gave labor in this public clinic, located in Vienna’s most wealthy residential area, surrounded by a park and quipped with balconies. In the last decade, the city started to sell the monument-protected buildings to private investors. The video thematizes that the site of the clinic as object of speculation at the expense of women’s health commodification.

Concept, Camera, Video Claudia Lomoschitz

Videoduration 6:02 min.