Regina Anzenberger, Roots & Waltz, 2023

Roots & Waltz was inspired by a walk through the Vienna Danube riverlands. Regina Anzenberger went there with a friend during pandemic times, when everyone in Vienna was stuck indoors and going for walks outside. Having grown up in the countryside and having lived in Vienna for over 30 years, the artist noticed that her Viennese friends didn’t actually leave the city when they longed for nature. Instead, they would go to the Prater-Auen, which is Vienna’s ‘Central Park’ and had served as the Emperor’s hunting grounds over 100 years ago. The landscape, with its fascinating, wild natural forms, shares even more, leaving plenty of room for imagination. The artist conveys moods with her painted-over, drawn-on photographs, augmented with found objects. After the pandemic, the war in Ukraine began, and the whole world changed again. More questions arose regarding the essence of life, roots, and the future of the planet. The forest, as a source of creative inspiration and energy, became a refuge for many. Nature makes the soul dance, wandering through the floodplain forest, one could almost say, “dancing to the Danube Waltz.”