‘O My Friends, There Are No Friends’

Sigalit Landau

07

About the Artwork

With ‘O my friends, there are no friends’ (2011), Sigalit Landau challenges the concept of monumental sculpture choosing a traditional material such as bronze to celebrate the future.
The pedestal on which the sculpture stand represents an anti-monument; real laces, soft and vulnerable, link together the pairs of bronze shoes. As Landau states, the work is “a commemoration of the future, when we will be able to slip into these shoes and be part of a community that will create a better history, with more solidarity, more generosity and regeneration”. This work was first shown in the Israeli pavilion at the 54° Venice Biennale in 2011. This will be the inaugural presentation of this work in the U.K.

Year: 2011


Copyright the artist, courtesy Marlborough Contemporary © Nick Turpin

Material

12 pairs of bronze shoes and laces

Dimensions

300 cm diameter

Artist Biography

Sigalit Landau

Sigalit Landau (born in Jerusalem, 1969, lives and works in Tel Aviv) is one of the most important Israeli artists working today. Her complex works touch on a number of social, humanitarian, and ecological issues, embracing topics such as homelessness, banishment, the relationships between victim and victimizer and between decay and growth. Much of her work is concerned with the human condition and the figure (often her own) is a key motif. Using materials such as: salt, sugar, paper, bronze, marble, and ready-made objects, Landau creates installations which transform the space around her work. Landau first represented Israel at the Venice Biennale in 1997 in a group presentation, followed by a solo presentation in the pavilion in 2011. She has featured in numerous exhibitions and museums, such as Documenta X in 1997, MoMA, New York in 2008 and Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA) in 2014. Her work is found in many major collections, including MoMA and Centre Pompidou