Health Investment

The video work examines the emptied architecture of the Semmelweis Clinic, one of the first clinics dedicated to women’s health solely. The pavilions were constructed from 1908 till 1910 as a state orphanage of lower Austria. In 1909 the first existing human milk bank, preserving breast milk for infants in need, was established here (Cohen 2018). The clinic for women’s health was established in these buildings in 1943 and operated as an influential public health center for women, mothers, daughters and granddaughters for 76 years.

The public clinic was surrounded by a park, located in Vienna’s wealthiest residential area. In the last decade, the city started to sell the monument-protected buildings to private investors - the site of became an object
 of speculation at the expense of women’s health commodification.