Artificial Hearts

About the Exhibition

The Josephinum, founded by Joseph II as an academy of military surgery in 1785, has made significant contributions to the academization of the surgical profession in Austria. The scientific advancement of surgery was shaped and supported here by an innovative program of training. The development of the artificial heart at the General Hospital of the City of Vienna by physicians and technicians of the Medical Faculty and, later, the Medical University of Vienna, would surely have met with approval from the reformist emperor with an interest in science. The Viennese artificial heart program began in 1967 at the Second Surgical University Clinic. With the support of the Ludwig Boltzmann Gesellschaft, the program developed over the years into one of the largest in Europe. Vienna became a center for the development and testing of pumps to support the heart. Today, thousands of these rotation pumps, based on technology largely developed in Vienna, are in clinical use all over the world. This internationally pioneering research achievement, a “bridge to survival”, is presented for the first time in a dedicated exhibition in the Josephinum. The description of the achievements of the scientists and the presentation of the remarkable artificial hearts from the AKH are complemented by objects from the Josephinum’s medical history collections.

Curators: Moritz Stipsicz (Kunst) & Klaus Wassermann (Wissenschaft)
Medical and scholarly expertise of: Heinrich Schima & Ernst Wolner

As part of the exhibition “Artificial Hearts” and the ongoing series “Chiasmata”, we present interventions from five contemporary artists whose works deal in different ways with the heart.