Mark Manders: Room with All Existing Words: London Mithraeum, Bloomberg SPACE
Forthcoming exhibition
Installation Views
Press release
London Mithraeum Bloomberg SPACE will present Room with All Existing Words, a new site-specific commission by Mark Manders, opening January 22, 2026.
Installed above the ancient Temple of Mithras, and alongside the Roman artefacts discovered on the Bloomberg site, the installation will transform the gallery into a space suspended between past and present, inviting visitors to consider how our understanding of history is constructed and imagined from the fragments that survive.
For over thirty years, Manders has developed what he describes as a “self-portrait as a building”: an evolving body of work where sculptures, objects, and texts form a cohesive fictional world. His practice is marked by contrasts, where sculptures appear at once like unearthed relics and also like works abruptly abandoned in the studio. Bronze and clay forms seem frozen in mid-construction, while fragments of language, including his own invented newspapers, appear partly hidden or painted over, suggesting meaning without ever fully revealing it. In his writing, Manders considers how art can be both understandable and mysterious, complete and unfinished—creating pieces that feel timeless.
At London Mithraeum Bloomberg SPACE, these ideas will find a powerful echo. A monumental sculpture featuring a human head will create an environment that feels both ancient and immediate, as though the viewer has stumbled upon artefacts recently left behind. Manders’ commission will play with ambiguity through objects that could be mistaken for ancient relics yet resist clear categorisation. In dialogue with a site layered with history, dating to 240 AD, Room with All Existing Words will underscore the way history is continually re-written: revealing what is preserved, what is lost, and what remains unresolved.
London Mithraeum Bloomberg SPACE is free to visit and open to the public: Tuesday to Saturday from 10 am to 6 pm, and on Sundays and Bank Holidays from 12 pm to 5 pm.
Pre-booking is advised through www.londonmithraeum.com.
Installed above the ancient Temple of Mithras, and alongside the Roman artefacts discovered on the Bloomberg site, the installation will transform the gallery into a space suspended between past and present, inviting visitors to consider how our understanding of history is constructed and imagined from the fragments that survive.
For over thirty years, Manders has developed what he describes as a “self-portrait as a building”: an evolving body of work where sculptures, objects, and texts form a cohesive fictional world. His practice is marked by contrasts, where sculptures appear at once like unearthed relics and also like works abruptly abandoned in the studio. Bronze and clay forms seem frozen in mid-construction, while fragments of language, including his own invented newspapers, appear partly hidden or painted over, suggesting meaning without ever fully revealing it. In his writing, Manders considers how art can be both understandable and mysterious, complete and unfinished—creating pieces that feel timeless.
At London Mithraeum Bloomberg SPACE, these ideas will find a powerful echo. A monumental sculpture featuring a human head will create an environment that feels both ancient and immediate, as though the viewer has stumbled upon artefacts recently left behind. Manders’ commission will play with ambiguity through objects that could be mistaken for ancient relics yet resist clear categorisation. In dialogue with a site layered with history, dating to 240 AD, Room with All Existing Words will underscore the way history is continually re-written: revealing what is preserved, what is lost, and what remains unresolved.
London Mithraeum Bloomberg SPACE is free to visit and open to the public: Tuesday to Saturday from 10 am to 6 pm, and on Sundays and Bank Holidays from 12 pm to 5 pm.
Pre-booking is advised through www.londonmithraeum.com.
