About 70 percent of the Earth’s surface is covered by water. The oceans form the largest continuous ecosystem on our planet, providing a habitat for millions of species. They serve as transportation routes, stages for history and geopolitics, and a vital source of sustenance for a large part of the world’s population. Yet the ocean floor remains less explored than the surface of the moon. Despite long-distance travel and the popularization of recreational diving, many people know the underwater world only through images. All the more reason for it to spark the imagination.

From its very beginnings, photography, with its drive to make the invisible visible, has sought to reveal what lies hidden beneath the sea’s reflective surface. Scientific and aesthetic interests often overlap in this endeavor: the ocean is both an object of research and a place of longing. Through selected photographic works, the exhibition directs its gaze below the water’s surface and toward the sea level as a site of transition.

Historic photographs by figures such as the Austrian zoologist and underwater filmmaker Hans Hass and the French documentary filmmaker Jean Painlevé — who, in the mid-twentieth century, captivated audiences with their images of a fascinating world beneath the sea and its inhabitants — are presented in dialogue with contemporary positions. While the former raise questions about the myths and motifs that continue to shape our perceptions of the underwater world, present-day works address the pressing issues of our time, confronting our ecological responsibility and seeking new visual languages beyond dominant narratives.

With works by Regina Anzenberger, Mandy Barker, Alfred Ehrhardt, Joan Fontcuberta, Agnès Geoffray, Ernst Haas, Hans Hass and Lotte Hass, André Kertész, Hyung S. Kim, Ivo Kocherscheidt, Michael Muller, Thomas P. Peschak, Claudia Rohrauer, Robertina Šebjanič, Kusukazu Uraguchi, David Uzochukwu, Manfred Wakolbinger, and Christine Wertheim & Margaret Wertheim, among others.

UNDER WATER
13.03.–17.05.2026

Opening hours: 
TUE, WED, FRI: 2–7 pm
THU: 2–9 pm

SAT, SUN, HOLIDAYS: 11am–7 pm

MON: closed