{"id":67740,"date":"2024-02-01T05:47:00","date_gmt":"2024-02-01T04:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/?p=67740"},"modified":"2024-09-01T17:43:40","modified_gmt":"2024-09-01T16:43:40","slug":"who-cares","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/sights\/museums\/who-cares\/","title":{"rendered":"Who Cares?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/whocaressmall.jpg\" alt=\"Museum sign\" class=\"wp-image-67741\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/whocaressmall.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/whocaressmall-100x100.jpg 100w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Ever fewer people,&#8221; the cynic might answer. The <em>Who Cares?<\/em> exhibition at the Jewish Museum takes a more optimistic approach and highlights the work of individuals and institutions who helped alleviate suffering in Vienna&#8217;s past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Strong focus on medical, psychological and socioeconomic care<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Concepts, stories &amp; biographies\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>&#8230;illustrated by historical items<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u2026and various works of art<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>As always, implicitly thought-provoking<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Runs Jan 31 &#8211; Sept 1, 2024<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>See also:\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/sights\/museums\/jewish-museum\/\">Jewish Museum overview<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Other <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/entertainment\/events\/exhibitions\/#history\">cultural exhibitions<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Jewish Responses to Suffering<\/h2>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/whocares1.jpg\" alt=\"Sigmund Freud's doctor's bag\" class=\"wp-image-67737\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/whocares1.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/whocares1-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-small-font-size\">(Among the items on display: Sigmund Freud&#8217;s doctor&#8217;s bag featuring his initials; press photo \u00a9 G\u00fcnter K\u00f6nig \/ Sigmund Freud Private Foundation)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Throw open a newspaper these days and division dominates. More and more walls (both real and metaphorical) seem to go up between people. The <em>Who Cares?<\/em> exhibition battles the trend with a focus on compassion rather than distance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The exhibition showcases Jewish individuals and organisations through (Viennese) history who have contributed to the relief of suffering, particularly in a psychological, medical, and socioeconomic context.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As such, the displays answer the question &#8220;who cares?&#8221; with concrete examples.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yet the double meaning of the exhibition title also has resonance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After all, we have a world plagued by a glaring disparity between what cultures, philosophies, politics and religions define as the &#8220;right&#8221; thing to do and how followers of each then actually behave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The exhibition begins with suffering and care illustrated in works of art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We see mental anguish, for example, in Uriel Birnbaum&#8217;s pictures that he created to help process his WWI trauma. And we see guardianship, for example, in Friedensreich Hundertwasser&#8217;s model of a high-rise meadow house designed for harmonious integration of people and nature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The remaining galleries then tackle individual themes in a Viennese context while also following a broad chronology.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" src=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/whocares3.jpg\" alt=\"View of the Who Cares? exhibition\" class=\"wp-image-67739\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/whocares3.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/whocares3-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-small-font-size\">(View of the exhibition; press photo \u00a9 Momentosphere by Tobias de St. Julien)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So we begin with the philosophical and religious background to the Jewish duty of care: for example, the concepts of charitableness and &#8220;love thy neighbour&#8221; as tenets of the Jewish faith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some of the (with hindsight) bizarre items used to ward off suffering then follow, including a phallic Roman amulet once owned by Sigmund Freud that sought to guard against a loss of virility. (Never change, men, never change.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Three subsequent sections cover:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Psychological care: a focus on Freud and his contemporaries<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Medical care: the individuals and institutions who contributed to public health<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Socioeconomic care: the individuals and organisations alleviating poverty, particularly post-WWI<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>A later gallery then tackles care in the context of the Nazi era, and the exhibition ends with a more contemporary reminder of the care needed by our shared planet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Each part within <em>Who cares?<\/em> comes with historical exhibits to illustrate a personality, location, issue or institution. These exhibits include a number of notable and\/or intriguing items.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As a lover of old writings, I enjoyed the certificate awarded to the Jewish woman Virdimura in 1376, allowing her to practice medicine in Sicily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The 1930 photo of the opening of the International Congress of the World League for Sexual Reform in Vienna featured such a remarkable range of moustaches that some kind of psychological evaluation seems pertinent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And Sigmund Freud&#8217;s doctor&#8217;s bag offers a direct link to one of the world&#8217;s great historical personalities.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"362\" src=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/whocares2.jpg\" alt=\"Photo of a hospital ward around 1914\/1915\" class=\"wp-image-67738\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/whocares2.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/whocares2-300x217.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-small-font-size\">(The morning round at the hospital attached to a camp for refugees in Gm\u00fcnd, 1914\/15; press photo \u00a9 J\u00fcdisches Museum, Wien)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Other items make less comfortable viewing. For example:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Items misappropriated for purposes of contraception, which reminded me of photos in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/sights\/museums\/laia-abril-karolina-wojtas\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"66444\">Laia Abril<\/a> exhibition at FOTO ARSENAL WIEN<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Bruno Frei&#8217;s photographic documentation of Jewish poverty in the Vienna of 1920<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The overall theme remains broadly uplifting, though: how numerous individuals sought to take us forward, not back. To bring us together, not force us apart. A lesson for the ages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yet the exhibition also reminds us implicitly of humanity&#8217;s capacity for cruelty, particularly suffering imposed by sociopolitical systems and bigotry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Inevitably, many of those simply seeking to help others found anti-semitism challenging their ability to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I found myself wondering at the ridiculousness of a society where unalloyed hate and mistrust can lead to Jewish midwives of the 1830s needing a special decree to help Christian mothers-to-be with childbirth (and then only in the presence of a &#8220;pious Christian woman&#8221;).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Or a system that beheaded Catholic nun Maria Kafka in 1943 for the &#8220;heinous&#8221; crime of refusing to remove a crucifix and failing to discriminate against Jewish patients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"tickets\">Dates, tickets &amp; tips<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Find out who did and does, in fact, care from January 31st to September 1st, 2024. An entrance ticket from or for the Jewish Museum includes the special exhibitions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For those interested in Freud and psychoanalysis, well, we have a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/sights\/museums\/sigmund-freud\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"986\">whole museum<\/a> for that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And one or two of the featured artists appear elsewhere in Vienna, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lower Belvedere, for example, has a special <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/sights\/museums\/belvedere-sites\/broncia-koller-pinell\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"67748\">Broncia Koller-Pinell exhibition<\/a> running for much of the same time (her <em>Mother with Child<\/em> painting is part of the opening gallery to <em>Who Cares?<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/sights\/museums\/belvedere-sites\/upper-belvedere-palace\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"3521\">Upper Belvedere<\/a> normally has a Hundertwasser painting on display. And a few weeks after <em>Who Cares?<\/em> begins, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/sights\/museums\/hundertwasser\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"17067\">Kunst Haus Wien<\/a> reopens with a new presentation of its permanent Hundertwasser exhibition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For more of the historical background to post-WWI Austria, particularly sociopolitical and socioeconomic developments demanding the kind of interventions documented in the  Jewish Museum exhibition, try the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/sights\/museums\/austrian-history\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"10113\">House of Austrian History<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How to get there<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Follow the travel tips at the end of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/sights\/museums\/jewish-museum\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"1591\">museum overview page<\/a>. The main location on Dorotheergasse hosts <em>Who Cares?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Address: Dorotheergasse 11, 1010 Vienna<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div align=\"center\"><figure><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/maps\/d\/u\/0\/embed?mid=1kuTU0C-76Mhn7ArHvQRPPPNUQ_y5QnDH\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/figure><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An exhibition explores how (Jewish) individuals and organisations have helped others through Vienna&#8217;s history<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":67741,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-67740","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-museums","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67740"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67740\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75234,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67740\/revisions\/75234"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}