Artist: Anne Ryan

London Mithraeum Bloomberg SPACE presents Folkmoot, a new site-specific commission by Anne Ryan.

Installed above the ancient Roman Temple of Mithras, and alongside the Roman artefacts discovered during the construction of Bloomberg’s European Headquarters, the commission will respond directly to this significant archaeological site. In a city shaped by destruction, regeneration and rediscovery, Anne Ryan will bring ancient and contemporary London into dialogue.

Folkmoot, is an Old English word meaning ‘a gathering of people’. In Anglo-Saxon times Londoners were summoned to the Folkmoot by the ringing of the bells of St Paul’s three times a year. Inspired by the site’s layered history, the exhibition will unfold as an immersive landscape of sculpture, painting and frieze reflecting themes of ritual, exchange and transformation throughout the city, echoing the cult of Mithras, a religion associated with creation and renewal.

Since her residency at the British School of Rome in 2016, Ryan has developed a body of work shaped by slow, open-ended walks, or ‘saunters’, through cities – observing architecture, street life and their inhabitants, while gathering stories and traces of the past. These observations inform her ‘sculptural islands’, freestanding structures made from ceramic, metal, plaster and bronze, animated by a distinctive, bright colour palette.

Sculptures will be arranged throughout the space, and stacked on a large bleacher-style structure, inviting visitors to move between them. Layers of history will be explored through images of weeds, flowers and wildlife emerging against fractured ground and rubble, recalling the Blitz and the city’s continual rebuilding over time. Animals and figures, both real and mythical, will move amongst glimpses of past and present architecture and archaeological fragments. A sequence of paintings and collage will expand this narrative, recalling London’s street-life from Roman occupation to the present day. These encounters will blend past, and present, mirroring the Roman artefacts discovered on the site, once buried and later uncovered, prompting reflection on how the city’s history remains embedded within its streets today.