From Stephansdom to the Soviet War Memorial

As in any medieval European city, the large public square is also where the cathedral was build. The groundbreaking for the Stephansdom or St. Steven’s Cathedral was in 1137, and it was completed in 1160. Its architecture is Romanesque and baroque, and it is a cathedral where today religious ceremonies are joined by classical music concerts, tours of its catacombs, in addition to remaining a monument to the passing of time with grace and splendor.

It is quite possible that many millions of photos are taken in and around the cathedral every day.  I may be among the few who over decades may have taken a dozen photos around the Stephansdom. 

And my recent visit was no exception.

I did however take one photo inside the cathedral, near the Raised Sepulcher of Emperor Frederick III at the south choir of the cathedral. It was not a photo of the imposing red marble Gothic grave, but of the chairs left next to the sepulcher with apparent serendipity. The eight centuries separating the marble grave from the wooden chairs made that moment delightful for me. And the filtered dim light inside the cathedral seemed to wrap the moment in a story. I was sure that the chairs would be taken away soon by staff and all would be back to order, cold marble and the mysteries hidden inside the cathedral or under it, in the catacombs where still the bones of the plague epidemic victims remain displayed since the Middle Ages.

But for that moment, I was there to see how a chair with a broken leg would look next to the red marble Raised Sepulcher of Emperor Frederic III!

… I did not think about the chair photo till I looked through some of the other shots I took during this trip. And, there was another chair, in another context, with a story to tell.

The Soviet War Memorial, or Heldendenkmal der Roten Armee, is in Schwarzenbergplatz, on the way to Belvedere Palaces. The memorial is for the memory of 17,000 Soviet soldiers who died during the battle of Vienna in 1945. It is imposing, yet every time I have been there it seems lonely. Perhaps because not many people visit it. Perhaps it is the rather harsh looking yet dominating statue of a Soviet soldier holding the Soviet flag and wearing a gold helmet. But on a rainy and dreary day, it is the profile silhouette of two Soviet soldiers upon the memorial’s arch that attracted my attention.

However it was the graffiti on the walls surrounding the memorial that attracted my attention. I had not seen so much graffiti in Vienna before and, as it was my feeling about this genre of street art on the banks of the Danube, I did not find it attractive.

In a corner of the wall, I noticed a chair. It was also can spray-painted, but for some reason it looked sad and lonely. Lonelier that the Soviet soldiers’ statues on a rainy November day.

Here is the cropped photo of the chair:

.. And as I was being a bit pensive about the harmony, or lack of, between graffiti and classic monuments in marble and gold, I noticed this statement on a wall: "Thinking Kills Art!"

So I stopped thinking. Art is indeed plastic and so is its interpretation.

I am just a street photographer looking for a story to tell.

December 17, 2016

© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2016