Anselm Kiefer

I was interested in transcendence from a very early age. I was interested in what was over there, what was behind life. So when I had my first communion I was very disappointed. I had expected something amazing and surprising and spiritual. Instead all I got was a bicycle. That wasn't what I was after at all. ”

I might have been born into a very literal sense of chaos, but in fact that state is true of all of us. ”

The reason for this project comes from my childhood, that is clear to me. I did not have any toys. So, I played in the bricks of ruined buildings around me and with which I built houses. ”

When I see a new artist I give myself a lot of time to reflect and decide whether it's art or not. ”

When, at the end of the 1960s, I became interested in the Nazi era, it was a taboo subject in Germany. No one spoke about it anymore, no more in my house than anywhere else. ”

Art really is something very difficult. It is difficult to make, and it is sometimes difficult for the viewer to understand. It is difficult to work out what is art and what is not art. ”

But we should also not forget the difference between what first motivated me and the work that is the result. ”

I believe art has to take responsibility but it should not give up being art. ”