"Against the vast horizon of the Giza Plateau, Art D'Éypte's 2025 edition hosts The Shen, a large-scale aluminum sculpture by Turkish artist Mert Ege Köse, conceptualized and curated by Ayça Okay and realized in collaboration with AWC Contemporary. The intervention marks the first time Köse presents work in Egypt and the first time a Turkish artist participates in the internationally visible sculptural program of the program, Forever Is Now."
"Köse rebuilds the shen ring, long associated with eternity, completeness, and divine protection, as a volume defined by mathematically calibrated curves. The work, fabricated at ASAŞ Sanat using specially developed alloys, spans roughly six meters in width and rises five meters high. Its reflective surfaces draw in the surrounding desert light, creating a shifting field where viewers encounter the monumental landscape behind them."
"Emerging from a year-long research process carried out through field studies in Egypt and Turkey, The Shen is conceived as an active point of dialogue. Köse frames the piece as an intersection of the human, the material, and the cosmic - a continuum mirrored by the geometry of the form and its placement at one of the world's most enduring architectural sites."
The Shen is a large-scale aluminum sculpture installed on the Giza Plateau directly before the Pyramids. The work rebuilds the shen ring as a volume defined by mathematically calibrated curves and reflective surfaces. Fabricated at ASAŞ Sanat using specially developed alloys, the sculpture measures roughly six meters wide and five meters high. The intervention marks the first presentation of the artist's work in Egypt and the first participation by a Turkish artist in the Forever Is Now sculptural program. The piece emerged from year-long field research in Egypt and Turkey and frames an intersection of human, material, and cosmic registers while engaging cross-regional cultural exchange.
Read at designboom | architecture & design magazine
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