Over Your Cities Your Grass Will Grow

Synopsis: Sophie Fiennes records Anselm Kiefer, as the 65-year-old world-renowned artist creates a spectacular architectonic landscape. "In 1993 (Kiefer) left his native Germany and settled in Barjac in France, where he bought a derelict silk factory, transforming it into an extraordinary artistic centre... at once the place where his paintings and sculptures are housed and displayed, and a colossal, evolving architectural artwork in itself. Fiennes begins by roaming through the tunnels and corridors of his studio-network: huge, disorienting shapes and forms loom, composed of earth and mud. There are giant, organic pillars, like stalagmites or termite mounds, a visual or conceptual rhyme to the towers built outside... Fiennes's emphases are almost abstract: color, light, texture, form - and to these, she adds sound, using the music of Jörg Widmann and György Ligeti. Anselm's studio is a place where real, hard work is going on: smelting, sawing and hammering... His artistry looks as if it could be taking place centuries ago, and yet it feels very modern... A deeply serious meditation on artistic practice and expression." - Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian (UK)     Source: Alive Mind