Exhibition shows lives of people with down syndrome
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In Vienna, Austria, a new exhibition opening October 22 at the Wien Museum will showcase the lives of people with Down syndrome, created in close collaboration with them.
Mischa Kirisits and Philipp Horak, both fathers of children with Down syndrome, co-curated the show alongside Frauke Kreutler and Ümit Mares-Altinok from the museum. The exhibition began as a focus on work, but expanded to cover education, housing, and leisure, after the curators realised many visitors would be unfamiliar with the condition.
The exhibit features films of people with Down syndrome at their jobs, photographs of diverse living arrangements, and artworks created in workshops by people with Down syndrome themselves. Emil Trainacher, a young man with Down syndrome, is featured in the exhibition through film and photography, and helped shape its focus on normalcy and self-determination. Kirisits emphasizes that people with Down syndrome deserve the same treatment as anyone else, including the freedom to be frustrating or difficult.
He believes Austria still needs to improve inclusion for people with disabilities, noting a lack of support in the education system and a tendency to focus on care rather than participation. The exhibition aims to promote understanding and acceptance, and to show that life with Down syndrome is about more than just the diagnosis itself.
