Starting from 1975, Christine de Grancy climbs on top of Viennese rooftops to study the political, social, scientific, artistic, cultural and religious centres from the perspective of the statues that decorate them. These gods and goddesses, placed there a long time ago, are the silent observers of our history. To quote Arthur Schnitzler, “What used to be, still is!”, the photographs of Christine de Grancy talk about the past and its consequences on the present. Her art combines memories, illusions, projections of the future as well as reality, all of which the artist collects with precision, in compositions that reveal the theatricality of their content.
 
“The historical images captured by Grancy contain both ironical undertones and profound meanings. Why, in that Vienna of Sigmund Freud, there’s no statue of Mnemosyne, the goddess of memory? Is it a coincidence that a statue of Fama, the goddess of whispers, crowns the Hofburg rooftop? Why does Pallas Athena, the goddess of wisdom and war, watches over the Parliament holding Nike, the goddess of victory, in her palm? At that time, it maybe symbolised a wish for democracy – but today? And also, why is there a horse trainer in front of this building? Shame on those who find any of it unfitting!”, says the curator of the exhibition, the actress Mercedes Echerer.