Exhibition
Anselm Kiefer Il Mistero delle Cattedrali - White Cube - Bermondsey Street
White Cube Bermondsey is pleased to present a new exhibition of work by the internationally renowned artist Anselm Kiefer. Staged across 11,000 sq ft of gallery space, 'Il Mistero delle Cattedrali' is the largest presentation of Kiefer's work ever made in London.
The title of the exhibition is taken from the esoteric publication by Fulcanelli (published in 1926), which claimed that the Gothic cathedrals of Europe had openly displayed the hidden code of alchemy for over 700 years. As with all Kiefer's work, allusions are never literal but reflect an ongoing interest in systems - mystical and material - which have evolved over centuries. Both title and exhibition reflect Kiefer's longtime fascination with the transformative nature of alchemy: 'The ideology of alchemy is the hastening of time, as in the lead-silver-gold cycle which needed only time in order to transform lead into gold. In the past the alchemist sped up this process with magical means. That was called magic. As an artist I don't do anything differently. I only accelerate the transformation that is already present in things. That is magic, as I understand it.'
