A book survey of Karavan’s seminal monument to the Negev Brigade, in the Negev Desert. Begun in 1963 and completed in 1968, the monument, in the vicinity of the city of Be’er Sheva, marks an important milestone in Karavan’s career and is regarded as a masterpiece of environmental art. Along with an exhibition held in 2014 at the Negev Museum of Art, the book is published on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the monument.
 
Editor: Adi Englman
 
FROM THE BOOK
“At the time, I didn't know what I was doing, I had no theories. I did what I felt. A sculpture that people could climb and walk on, touch, hear, smell, and see. A sculpture using all the senses that constitute the experience, that directs the flow of visitors to it, a grounded sculpture, an environment composed of natural materials and memories.
It was there on a hill overlooking Be'er Sheva, in the early 1960s, that my sculptural language, my alphabet, came into being. It is a language which I developed and created with, and I continue to create environmental sculptures today.”
 
Dani Karavan, “The Monument to the Palmach Negev Brigade, Be'er Sheva: Or How a Historical Event is Transformed into Plastic a Form,” excerpt from the book, p. 160.
 
CONTENTS 
Dani Karavan: The Negev Monument provides a fresh perspective on an artwork that has become a landmark in public and environmental art. More than just a monument, that site is an inspiration for art and architecture lovers from around the world, as well as a popular site of recreation drawing visitors from all over the Negev, and indeed the country.
The book features essays by Karavan himself, along with essay-length contributions by, among others, Dr. Dalia Manor, director and chief-curator of The Negev Museum of Art, Be’er Sheva; Marc Scheps, former director and chief curator of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art and of the Museum Ludwig, Cologne; and Galit Sivan, ceramic artist, expert on the mud-building traditions of the Palestinian vernacular, and literary scholar.
Along with its essay section, the book features a portfolio of works by noted Israeli photographer Jacob Agor (1911–1996), shot on site in the early 1970s. Agor’s series appears here for the first time in print, together with numerous illustrations, preparatory studies and a photographic documentation compiled from professional and amateur photographers since the monument’s inauguration to this day.
 
Dani Karavan: The Negev Monument is a trilingual publication, with essays in English, Hebrew and Arabic.
168 pages in soft cover, 27 x 21.5 cm, offset print, with illustrations in black-and-white and color.
The book is the second installment in the series Masterpieces in Israeli Modern Art, published by Marcel Art Projects, after Dani Karavan: Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem (the Knessest wall).
 
ON THE PUBLISHER 
Marcel Art Projects is a non-profit organization begun in Tel Aviv in 2013 by Adi Englman, independent curator and a co-founder and editor of Picnic Magazine (2006–2013). Marcel focuses on public art and Israeli modernism in the fields of art, design and architecture. Together with its editorial activities, it organizes art events and exhibitions.
 
Book desgined by Harel & Maayan Studio
Photos of the book by Guy Aon