Keren Shalev sculpture drawing | Keren Shalev

Monument for the Lost 

In the middle of the forest, the project Monument to the Lost offers an overview of a complex relationship between two basic forms and the possible outcomes of their encounter. The work consists of two simple elements - each element occurs eight times - that meet and together create a structure reminiscent of an abstract ship skeleton.

Two rows of elements stand parallel to each other, on each side four curved poles three meters high stand in the air and are supported by four poles 1.80 meters high. The connecting point of the elements is at a height of 1.70 meters and therefore meets the eyes of the people standing next to it. The meeting of the elements does not seem to be final, it is as if the forms can still change into a new structure. The material of the sculpture is rough and unrefined; the metal from which it is built rusts with time and the points of contact are brutal and rough. This kind of material creates an image of a bare, abandoned structure that looks forlorn and unrestrained.

The sculpture appears monumental and miserable at the same time. The arrangement of the elements presents a figurative closed, safe space, but one that is actually open and unprotected. The work refers to a recognizable form, but only partially shows it, challenging the viewer to continue building this form - and beyond it, other possible forms - in their minds.

The monumentality of the work comes from the context of the Denkmahle and creates a clear relationship with the viewers at first glance. The work is based precisely on the visitor's experience of a place of remembrance - the styles, the reverence, the sense of duty - and thus acts as an invitation to visitors to pause and reflect without telling them what to think about. In this sense, the Monument to the Lost is an empty memorial that points to traces of an indeterminate past while simultaneously evoking a non-existent memory.

A clear separation between the viewer and the work does not exist; one could experience the surroundings through the work, walk between the two parts of the work - the distance between them is about the width of a door, 70 cm - and feel oneself as part of the work. The essence of the sculpture is expressed in the result of the visitor's encounter with the work; it is not a structure that can only be observed from a distance, and it, therefore, functions almost like an installation. It is a poetic meeting of the concrete and the abstract, of the real and the possible.

Text by Itamar Gov