Ceija Stojka. Keep Your Eyes Open

Catalogue of the exhibition Ceija Stojka. Keep Your Eyes Open, presented at the Museum of Fine Arts and Archaeology in Besançon (27 February - 21 September 2026).

Ceija Stojka (pronounced ‘Tchaïa Stoïka’) was born in 1933 in south-eastern Austria to a Romani family. At that time, the Romani people – then known as ‘Gypsies’ – were quite numerous in this region. In 1938, Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany. Adolf Hitler's racial policy designated the Roma, like Jews and Germans of non-Germanic origin, as foreigners in their own country. Deprived of their rights and persecuted, they were deported to concentration camps. Ceija was arrested on 3 March 1943 with her mother and siblings. She was sent to the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp, then transferred to Ravensbrück and Bergen-Belsen, from where she emerged alive in May 1945.

More than forty years later, she began to write, then to paint and draw works evoking her semi-nomadic childhood in Burgenland, followed by the descent into Nazi barbarism.

This contrast between nature and destruction, light and darkness, runs through all her work. Some of her more symbolic pieces reveal the power of her vision and her profound humanity. ‘Art,’ she said, ‘allows us to live and exist. Art can demonstrate and connect us.’ More than just a testimony, Ceija Stojka's work is now recognised worldwide for its artistic value and is present in the collections of major contemporary art museums.

Exhibition details