A majestic eagle sits atop the roof of the Hofburg, gazing out over the rooftops of Vienna. From dizzying heights, Christine de Grancy (1942–2025) pursued the emotions of power and powerlessness with her camera for decades.
Since 1975, the artist has told the story of the former Habsburg Empire's capital through the perspective of stone witnesses to time, whose legacy the small republic and its people must carry. Vienna’s identity is also rooted in its hierarchies and the torn divide between above and below, between power and powerlessness, between history and the present.
From the 1980s onward, her extensive travel photography has focused on life in regions marked by political and social upheaval and often underrepresented – such as the Sahrawi refugee camps, Tuareg women in the Sahara, polo players in Pakistan, and the Roma in the Czech Republic.
FOTO ARSENAL WIEN presents Christine de Grancy’s visual narratives Above the World and Time for the first time. Among all the deities atop the rooftops, Mnemosyne is missing – the mother of the nine muses and goddess of memory. Expanded by selected moments from her life’s work, this exhibition pays tribute to the recently deceased artist.
With thanks to the BMEIA for providing the images.
In cooperation with AnzenbergerGallery.
