Kiefer transforms Berlin’s iconic airport into a monumental artwork

Anselm Kiefer has built his career on a continuous interrogation of European history, particularly Germany’s past and the aftermath of Nazism. Following his recent exhibition at Palazzo Reale—in the Sala delle Cariatidi, a space marked by the bombings of World War II—the German artist arrives in Valencia on April 29 with a new exhibition centered on Danaë, a monumental canvas never before seen in Europe.

At over thirteen meters in length, Danaë is one of Kiefer’s most significant works. Previously shown only once, in New York in 2022, the painting depicts the interior of Tempelhof Airport—a building layered with symbolic and historical meaning.

Constructed between 1936 and 1941 as part of the monumental vision of the Nazi regime, the airport was designed to embody the grandeur of the Reich’s capital and serve as a symbolic gateway to Berlin. After the war, the same space became the stage for one of the defining episodes of the Cold War: the Berlin Airlift, which ensured the survival of West Berlin during the Soviet blockade.

Described by Domus 2024 guest editor Norman Foster as “the mother of all airports,” Tempelhof stands as a pioneering building in both scale and concept, influencing postwar airport design. Its monumental character and clear spatial organization make it a prototype of modern infrastructure—but also an ambiguous symbol, shaped by its political origins. It is precisely this ambivalence that Kiefer captures, turning architecture into a theater of memory where the past is never fully resolved.

Across the canvas, a golden rain cuts through the architectural space, evoking the Greek myth of Danaë—impregnated by Zeus in the form of a shower of gold. The result is a striking visual and conceptual short circuit between classicism and modernity, myth and historical trauma, in Kiefer’s unmistakable style. The exhibition Anselm Kiefer, on view from April 29 to October 25, 2026, is hosted at Palacio de Valeriola, home to the Centro de Arte Hortensia Herrero, and inaugurates the museum’s temporary exhibition program. It unfolds across six galleries, placing the artist’s works in dialogue with a building that is itself a palimpsest of historical layers. Originally Baroque but deeply transformed by a recent intervention by ERRE Arquitectura, the palace integrates contemporary exhibition spaces with archaeological remains uncovered during restoration: Roman, Visigothic, and Islamic traces that recount over two thousand years of urban history.

Curated by Javier Molins, the exhibition expands on the central themes of Kiefer’s practice—landscape, myth, literature, and history—already present in the permanent collection. Within the palace, these themes find an almost natural setting: a space where artworks, like architecture itself, operate through accumulation, sedimentation, and the resurfacing of the past. Just as in Danaë.

Opening image: Anselm Kiefer, Danaë, 2016-2021