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Turkish artist Mert Ege Kose has debuted the Shen, a large-scale aluminum sculpture installed on the Giza Plateau for Art D’Égypte 2025, marking his first presentation in Egypt and the first participation of a Turkish artist in the international sculptural program Forever Is Now.
Kose sculpted the Shen, and Ayca Okay conceptualized and curated it and realized it in collaboration with AWC Contemporary.
The fifth edition of Art D’Égypte’s Forever Is Now series will take place from Nov. 11 to Dec. 11, 2025, against the timeless backdrop of the Giza Pyramids.
The work draws inspiration from the Shen ring, the Ancient Egyptian symbol of eternity, completeness, and divine protection.
Kose transforms this ancient emblem into a contemporary meditation on timelessness, balance, and wholeness. Positioned before the pyramids,
The Shen rises not only as an artwork but also as a symbol that evokes the continuity between the human, the material and the universe.
Shaped through a yearlong process of field studies and extensive research, The Shen is an aluminum structure produced in the Asassanat workshops.
Measuring roughly six meters wide, five meters high, and 2.5 meters (8.3 feet) deep, the sculpture stands before the Giza Pyramids as a monumental presence.
Kose rebuilds the Shen ring, long associated with eternity, completeness, and divine protection, as a volume defined by mathematically calibrated curves.
The work, fabricated at ASAS 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.
Curator Okay, who also serves on the curatorial board for the 2025 edition of 'Forever Is Now,' positions the project within a broader investigation of cross-regional cultural exchange.
Her approach is based on research and experimentation, connecting contemporary production in Türkiye with historical and institutional contexts across SWANA and Europe.
In this sense, the Shen becomes part of her larger effort to situate artists within transnational networks shaped by shared mythologies, material knowledge, and spatial histories.
The collaboration extends to AWC Contemporary, the Dubai-based platform supporting large-scale artistic initiatives across the MENA and KSA regions.
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