Mert Ege Köse The Shen sculpture Debuts at Art D’Égypte 2025: A Contemporary Dialogue with the Pyramids

Mert Ege Köse The Shen sculpture Debuts  at Art D’Égypte 2025

Against the immense horizon of the Giza Plateau, Art D’Égypte’s 2025 edition unveils The Shen — a monumental, site-specific installation by Turkish artist Mert Ege Köse, curated by

Ayça Okay and produced in collaboration with AWC Contemporary.

This marks Köse’s first presentation in Egypt and the first participation of a Turkish artist in the internationally recognized sculptural program Forever Is Now.

Positioned directly in front of the ancient Pyramids, The Shen reinterprets one of the oldest motifs in Egyptian symbology — the shen ring, a signifier of eternity, protection, and wholeness. Here, Köse transforms the ancient form into a mathematically calibrated, large-scale aluminum volume that bridges historical symbolism with contemporary sculpture.

A Reflective Geometry Framing the Pyramids

Fabricated at ASAŞ Sanat using custom-developed aluminum alloys, Mert Ege Köse The Shen sculpture, spans nearly six meters in width and rises five meters high. Its reflective surfaces interact dynamically with desert light, refracting and diffusing the environment. As viewers move around the sculpture, the work becomes a shifting frame that mirrors the surrounding landscape — including the monumental pyramids themselves.

This interplay transforms The Shen into a portal where material, light, and geography converge, inviting audiences to reconsider how ancient forms can be reframed through contemporary design.

An Ancient Motif Reimagined Through Research

The work results from a year-long research process carried out between Egypt and Turkey.

For Köse, The Shen represents a point of intersection between the human, the material, and the cosmic — a continuum expressed through the sculpture’s geometry and its placement within one of the most emblematic architectural contexts on Earth.

Curator Ayça Okay, also a member of the curatorial board for the 2025 edition of Forever Is Now, situates the installation within broader conversations about cultural exchange across SWANA, Turkey, and Europe. Her research-driven approach connects contemporary artistic production with shared mythologies, materials, and spatial histories.

Cross-Regional Collaboration and Contemporary Vision

The project is realized with the support of AWC Contemporary, a Dubai-based platform dedicated to enabling large-scale artistic initiatives across the MENA and KSA regions. This collaboration underscores the increasingly transnational nature of contemporary sculpture and cultural production — reinforcing the significance of situating artists within global networks.

Through The Shen, Köse and his collaborators expand the dialogue between past and present, permanence and transformation. The result is a powerful reminder that contemporary design can both honor history and reimagine it, creating new meanings for today’s audiences.

Written by Otávio Santiago, a multidisciplinary designer exploring the intersection of emotion, form, and technology. His practice spans graphic, motion, and 3D design, bridging digital and physical experiences.