That was hard enough. What proved to be even more difficult, however, was paying the salaries of the physicians who were to work in the van. The City of Vienna was the only possible source of long-term funding, but at first the city councilor responsible did not agree to the project. Thus WochenKlausur resorted to a trick, asking a correspondent for the German news magazine Der Spiegel to conduct an interview with the councilor and pretend that he was interested in reporting on the project. Since the politician did not want to appear in the German press as the cause of a dedicated art project’s failure, she had no choice but to provide funding for the physicians who would staff the clinic – initially for one year.

That was in 1993. The article was never published. But since then the van has every day been visiting one of the places in Vienna that are frequented by homeless people, providing health care to more than 600 people per month. Actually it is already the second van: in 1998, after five years in operation, the old one was replaced by a larger vehicle. In the meantime, the relief organization Caritas has taken over management of the entire project. The mobile medical clinic carrying the name “Luise” has become a permanent institution. It also treats foreigners who have no insurance and thus no other access to medical care.