The Abbey of Thelema #2

This full set of 10 photographs centres around Joachim Koester’s exploration of cult leader Aleister Crowley and his occupation of the Abbey of Thelema in Cefalù, Sicily. Crowley and a small group of devotees lived in Cefalù in the early 1920s.

They lived in bleak conditions, aspiring to an ideal life via Crowley’s doctrine of hedonism, magic, drugs and sexual rites. Koester’s photographic documentation reveals what remains of the house today. He says, ‘Most human activities leave traces in space. In one way or another, spaces are transformed by human action, and in my work I am, if you like, ghost-haunting spaces.’

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