In 1994, David Bowie and Brian Eno spent a day at the Maria Gugging psychiatric clinic near Vienna, a visit that would profoundly influence Bowie's later work. The clinic, known for its Art Brut or 'Outsider Art' created by residents, many with schizophrenia, provided a creative spark for Bowie's 1995 album 1. Outside.
Photographer Christine de Grancy documented the visit, capturing Bowie engaging with artists such as August Walla and Oswald Tschirtner. These intimate photographs are being shown in Australia for the first time at the Joondalup festival in Western Australia in March, in collaboration with the Santa Monica Art Museum.
Bowie was struck by the artists' freedom from self-judgment. 'They paint without any feeling of judgment,' he told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in 1995. 'Whatever they feel is what they paint.' The visit inspired him and Eno to recreate a similar atmosphere in the studio, encouraging musicians to redecorate the space to foster a sense of play and spontaneity.
The clinic itself has a dark history, having been part of the Nazi Aktion T4 program that led to the mass murder of people with disabilities. Bowie, whose half-brother Terry Burns lived with schizophrenia and died by suicide, was acutely aware of this tension between creativity and institutional violence.
