The Art of Healing

The art of healing is based on taking care of one’s health and on the healing of diseases and injuries. The exhibition project sets out to offer an overview, beginning with the medicine of antiquity, through folk medicine, medicine in monasteries and plagues throughout history, right up to modern medical technology, and above all the future of medical care. At the same time, the exhibition reveals the extent to which the healing arts, medical treatment and modern-day hospital medicine are dependent upon political, economic, social and technological developments. Crucial for the exhibition project has been the long-standing and emotionally charged discussion surrounding the reforming of health care in the Liezen district, the future leading hospital and its location in the Stainach-Pürgg municipality, as well as future medical care in the district. The Covid-19 pandemic has given the subject additional topicality, giving rise to essential questions on the history of infectious diseases, for example, why some pathogens lead to epidemics (the plague, cholera, Spanish Influenza, Ebola or Covid-19, for example) and, above all, what medicine and research can do against it. Based on the latest scientific findings from the field of climate science, links between pandemics and climate change over the millennia presented in the form of reviews are designed to prompt the visitor to reflect. Proceeding from the broader international and national themes, the inter-disciplinary exhibition project engages with health care at the regional level, with Styria, specifically with the district of Liezen, the timespan ranging from 1700 to the 21st century. Future developments in provision of medical care in Liezen are also covered. The basis of contents and objects that concern the region come from the Schloss Trautenfels collections, as well as other departments of the Universalmuseum Joanneum (the Archaelogy Museum & Coin Cabinets, the Natural History Museum, the History Museum, among others) and further cooperation partners. The goal of this exhibition is to produce a ground-breaking, generally comprehensible analysis of the social challenge presented by the health system, as affected by changes in the climate and its impact on people’s way of living, among other things. Multi-media presentations, film sequences and active experience of global images together with original objects turn this exhibition into an exciting experience for visitors of all ages.