Caring for and looking after other people, nurturing them, raising them, and educating them – all of this is now referred to as care work. These tasks, which are essential to the functioning of society, were and are mostly performed by women, often without pay and often without recognition.
In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, a public debate has been sparked about the "systemic relevance" of care work. At the same time, however, these activities are often devalued or not even recognized as "work" because they are not considered "productive" in the sense of capitalist exploitation.
The Museum of Work would like to use this discrepancy as an opportunity to address this increasingly important topic with a cultural-historical exhibition that focuses primarily on the present, but at the same time illustrates the historical development of care work using exemplary activities.
In cooperation with students from the Hamburg University of Fine Arts, cultural-historical perspectives are combined with artistic positions. A dedicated interactive and participatory exhibition area, under the motto "Do you care?", invites visitors to actively and collaboratively reflect on questions of asymmetries, paradoxes, and challenges in the current and future situation surrounding care work.
