Menashe Kadishman's Anti-War Installation Shalechet at Berlin Jewish Museum
Shalechet, an anti-war installation by Menashe Kadishman, was unveiled in 2001 at the Jewish Museum Berlin. This artwork comprises over 20,000 iron discs, each featuring a face, and produces a clanking noise as visitors tread upon them. Situated within a 20-meter-high Memory Void designed by Daniel Libeskind, Kadishman, who was born in Tel Aviv in 1932 and passed away in 2015, envisioned Shalechet as a universal tribute to victims of war, drawing inspiration from personal tragedies and the biblical story of the Sacrifice of Isaac. Gallerist Hans Mayer facilitated its introduction to Libeskind. The museum's opening was attended by German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and President Johannes Rau. Kadishman's family history includes escaping Bolshevik pogroms and the Nazi massacre in Kamianets-Podilskyi.
Key facts
- Shalechet installed in 2001 at Jewish Museum Berlin
- Over 20,000 iron discs cut from steel plates
- Each disc perforated to form a face
- Work occupies a Memory Void in Daniel Libeskind's building
- Kadishman reinterpreted Sacrifice of Isaac, eliminating Abraham
- Idea came from metal heads accumulating in studio
- Gallerist Hans Mayer introduced work to Libeskind
- Inauguration attended by Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and President Johannes Rau
- Marc Scheps compared Shalechet to Picasso's Guernica
- Kadishman's aunt murdered in Kamianets-Podilskyi massacre (1941)
- Artist served as shepherd in Upper Galilee (1950)
- In 1978, transformed Israeli Pavilion into sheepfold with 18 sheep
- Maya Kadishman described father as 'heart' and leader for peace
Entities
Artists
- Menashe Kadishman
- Maya Kadishman
- Daniel Libeskind
- Marc Scheps
- Ulrich Schneider
- George Segal
- Giuseppe Ungaretti
- Arturo Schwarz
- Gabriele Cordì
Institutions
- Jewish Museum Berlin
- Israeli Pavilion
- Biennale on Nature
- Artribune
- Università IULM
Locations
- Tel Aviv
- Tel HaShomer
- Berlin
- Palestine
- Kamianets-Podilskyi
- Upper Galilee
- Israel
- Germany