Communicative Diseases

The Moulage Museum is located within the Department of Dermatology of the University Clinical Hospital in Wrocław and displays a collection of around three hundred wax models dating from 1899 to 1937. A mulage is a cast made of plaster, wax or another material. In this museum, the models serve to illustrate symptoms of disease and skin lesions affecting various parts of the human body. They are the remnants of a collection numbering several thousand items, which was taken to Germany during the Second World War. Those belonging to the Dermatology Clinic form a ‘defective’ collection, dusty, somewhat neglected, battered by time and history. They probably survived by chance. It is suspected that there were not enough packing crates or that they were mistakenly left out during preparations for transport. Access to the museum is difficult for the wider public, and the collections are virtually unknown. Only a handful of medical students are able to view them. The exhibition has not been altered or refreshed in any way for decades.

The collection was initiated by Professor Albert Neisser – a figure as distinguished as he was controversial. He undoubtedly made an enormous contribution to the development of medicine, particularly in the field of preventive care; at the same time, however, he carried out experimental and fatal research on people from the lower social classes without warning them of the possible consequences. His actions sparked a debate on medical ethics and, in 1900, led to the Prussian Ministry of Education drafting a document regulating clinical trials.

The series ‘Communicative Diseases’ concerns language, which functions in at least a dual context: the tongue is a bodily organ, a muscular structure, but also a system, a tool of communication. In traditional Chinese medicine, observation of the tongue is one of the most important stages of diagnosis. The colour, coating or cracks in this part of the body allow the type of illness and its location to be determined. The language we use also says a great deal about our origins, gender and upbringing. ‘The limits of my language are the limits of my world,’ claimed Ludwig Wittgenstein. By using language, we can hurt someone, but we can also change the world. The works shown in this series revolve around questions concerning the condition of contemporary language (languages): its ailments, weaknesses, limitations, anomalies, pathologies and entanglements with politics. To what extent does contemporary language allow us to draw closer to another human being?