17 June 2026, 15:00-19:00, FOTO ARSENAL WIEN —

Organised and moderated by: Monika Pietrzak-Franger (University of Vienna) and Felix Hoffmann (Foto Arsenal Wien)

Medicine has never been a purely scientific enterprise. It is deeply embedded in cultural imaginaries, visual regimes, and aesthetic practices: from anatomical atlases, hospital architecture, and early medical photography to contemporary imaging technologies, and artistic engagements with illness and care.

This conference, held within the frame of both the Foto Arsenal Wien exhibition “Photo I Brut” and the University of Vienna lecture series “Visual Culture, Photography and Medicine”, provides insights into questions of economisation of art by people with mental illness, and how institutions and estates deal with these questions.

Speakers:

• Nina Ansperger (Director, Museum Gugging)
• Zofia Płoska–Czartoryska (Tomasz Machciński Foundation, Warsaw)
• Barbara Safarova (art brut connaissance & diffusion)
• Sophie Thun (University of Applied Arts, Vienna)

More about the exhibition “Photo I Brut”
More about the Lecture series “Visual Culture, Photography and Medicine: Bodies, Technologies and the Politics of Seeing”