Performance of Entrapment by Jane and Louise Wilson at London Mithraeum Bloomberg SPACE

London Mithraeum Bloomberg SPACE will present Performance of Entrapment, a new installation by Jane and Louise Wilson, opening 17 July 2025. The commission draws on the site’s rich history, inviting viewers to engage with its layered past in a new and unique way.

Central to the installation will be 2,000-year-old oak stakes, believed to have once supported a crossing over the River Walbrook – an ancient waterway that flowed beside the Temple of Mithras and still runs beneath the streets of modern London. These ancient timbers, shown to the public for the first time, were discovered during excavations for Bloomberg’s European headquarters, which unearthed over 14,000 Roman artefacts. The Wilsons use high-resolution microscopic imagery of the oak’s grain as a starting point for a new body of work. Blending screen-printing, resin, and carved wooden forms, the artists highlight the hidden details of the wood’s structure—drawing inspiration from its patterns and DNA sequencing to create large-scale, visually layered artworks.

Performance of Entrapment continues the Wilsons’ exploration of culturally significant sites, investigating parallels between the Roman Temple of Mithras and Japan’s Ise Jingu shrine —two sacred places dating to the 1st–3rd century BC. Though geographically and culturally distant, they both feature similarities in iconography and house significant relics: the head of Mithras in London, and the Sacred Mirror of the Emperor at Ise Jingu. The Geku and the Naiku, the two most sacred Shinto shrines, are rebuilt and relocated to an adjacent site every 20 years. This rare practice keeps ancient skills and knowledge alive, connecting the old with the new.

In 2023, the Wilsons filmed within Ise Jingu’s restricted grounds with full cooperation and final approval from shrine authorities. The film explores themes of sisterhood, duality and renewal, and will be projected onto a suspended mirror and featured on a cascading LED curtain.

“Ise City is the home to the Ise Ondo, a traditional female folk-dance group that dates to the Edo period” the Wilsons explain. “The film, made with the group, explores re-enactment of traditions. Filmed using hand-held Bolex cameras and mirrors, the images bounce and shift like coded light signals. This creates a feeling of being in two worlds at once – strange, yet familiar – like looking at ourselves through a mirror.”

By weaving together archaeology, mythology, and contemporary art, Jane and Louise Wilson offer a powerful reflection on time, memory, and renewal.

Visitors will be able to engage further with the exhibition using our digital guide, available on Bloomberg Connects, the free arts and culture app. Bloomberg Connects provides free digital guides to over 850 museums, galleries, gardens, public art, festivals, historic sites, and other cultural spaces, making it easy to access and engage with arts and culture from mobile devices, anytime, anywhere. Visit the guide here or download the app on the Apple Store or Google Play today.

The artworks and microscopic imagery of the oak’s grain have been developed with Phil Ayres, Professor of Biohybrid Architecture and Tom Svilans, designer and researcher at the Royal Danish Academy.

About the Artists

Jane and Louise Wilson (b. 1967, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK) are twins who have been working in collaboration for over two decades. They were elected Royal Academicians in 2018 and are Joint Professors of Fine Art at Newcastle University, as well as Honorary Visiting Professors of Fine Art at the University of Wolverhampton.

Renowned for their collaborative practice in film, photography, sculpture, and installation, their work explores themes of memory, history, power, and surveillance, often investigating sites with political, historical, and psychological significance. Through meticulously researched, immersive visual storytelling, their installations create highly atmospheric and theatrical experiences, often delving into the darker side of human experience.

They studied at Dundee and Newcastle Universities, followed by postgraduate studies at Goldsmiths College, London. They have gained both national and international recognition since the 1990s, with exhibitions at institutions including Tate (Ruin Lust, 2014 & Conflict Time and Photography, 2014), Serpentine Galleries (Jane and Louise Wilson, 1999), Guggenheim Museum (Moving Pictures, 2003), J. Paul Getty Museum (Sealander series, 2017) and the Venice Biennale. In 1996, they were awarded a DAAD artists’ scholarship in Berlin, and in 1999, they were nominated for the Turner Prize for their groundbreaking multi-screen installation Gamma (1999).

Their work frequently focuses on abandoned or highly restricted sites, capturing hidden histories through carefully choreographed film installations, sound works, and photography. They have gained access to some of Europe’s least accessible locations, including a former Stasi prison in East Berlin, the British Houses of Parliament, Chernobyl, and Russia’s Star City cosmonaut training complex. Their film Undead Sun (2014), commissioned by Arts Council England and the Imperial War Museum, marked the Centenary of the First World War and later toured to MIMA, Middlesborough and Wolverhampton Art Gallery.

Recent projects include a photographic series created during an artist residency in Korea (2018) and major exhibitions such as The Toxic Camera (Maureen Paley, London, 2022), Winter of Discontent (303 Gallery, New York, 2021), Divided We Stand (Busan Biennial, Korea, 2018), and Stasi City (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2018-19). They have previously exhibited at Bloomberg SPACE, with their installation Prison (2007), and were featured in Bloomberg New Contemporaries in 1993.

They are represented by Maureen Paley, London and 303 Gallery, New York.

About London Mithraeum Bloomberg SPACE

Situated on the site of Bloomberg’s European headquarters, London Mithraeum Bloomberg SPACE returns the Roman Temple of Mithras to the location of its discovery in the heart of the City of London. The space offers an immersive experience of the ancient temple, alongside a display of Roman artefacts uncovered during excavation. The Bloomberg SPACE gallery hosts contemporary art commissions by leading international artists, offering new perspectives on the site’s layered history.

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.

About Bloomberg

Bloomberg is a global leader in business and financial information, delivering trusted data, news, and insights that bring transparency, efficiency, and fairness to markets. The company helps connect influential communities across the global financial ecosystem via reliable technology solutions that enable our customers to make more informed decisions and foster better collaboration. For more information, visit www.bloomberg.com/company.

Press Information

Yasmin Hyder, Rees & Co., +44 (0)7791 979 839 yasmin@reesandco.com

Oisin O’Malley, Bloomberg L.P., +44 (0)20 3525 4958 oomalley2@bloomberg.net