Anselm Kiefer's 'Le Donne dell'Antichità' at Ravello Festival

Anselm Kiefer presents a fragmented narrative of the female figure as generative, destructive, and initiatory force at the Ravello Festival, running from July 11 to August 26, 2025. Monumental sculptures like 'Ave Maria Turris Eburnea' (2018–2025) coexist with the artist's signature lead, glass, and ash vitrines that sediment history and memory. The exhibition 'Le Donne dell'Antichità' is hosted at Villa Rufolo and its historic garden, designed by Francis Nevile in the 19th century. It is produced by Fondazione Ravello in close collaboration with Galleria Lia Rumma. The show spans centuries and civilizations, drawing on figures from ancient Rome, Greek mythology, and Nordic traditions. Among the evoked figures are Arria, who stabs herself to encourage her husband Paetus with the legendary phrase 'Paete, non dolet'; and Tusnelda, wife of Germanic chieftain Arminius, proud even in Roman captivity. The installation 'Apollodors Liste' unfurls a lead coil laden with photographs, ruins, and symbols, reflecting on cyclical time and myth renewed in contemporaneity. Ravello, historically linked to European culture and figures like Richard Wagner and Gore Vidal, provides a fitting context for Kiefer's interrogation of memory, history, and knowledge.