Sundial Sculpture - work in progress / Macedonia / Bitola, June 2018

26/6/2018

written by Naomi R. Azar
At the stage we reached there is no need for words, the photos tell a good story.
During the last three years Maty G. has been involved in the process of turning the ancient Jewish cemetery in Bitola / Monastir in Macedonia, the country of his birth, into a memorial park for the Jews of Macedonia (a community almost entirely annihilated during the Holocaust). It was important to Maty G. to bring a beam of light to the old cemetery. As part of this concept, he is creating a sundial sculpture that will be installed at the center of the cemetery in the near future.
Many partners are working hard for this project. I will mention only the leading triumvirate - Dan Orian, the Israeli ambassador to Macedonia, and the director of the Balkan Desk, Dr. Rachel Shelly Levy Drumer, born in Macedonia, the academic secretary of Bar-Ilan University in Israel, and her Macedonian childhood friend, the energetic and fearless lawyer, project development director, Mima (Marija) Geras Dochovska.
I accompany Maty G.'s work in a series of articles. Here is a link to one of the first posts that sheds light on Maty's work in Macedonia - Memory / Eyes on the Future
http://www.matygrunberg.com/memory--eyes-on-the-future-2016.html

This adventure began, 1946, after the war, Skopje, Macedonia (former Yugoslavia) Maty G. age 3

First visit, December 2015, Bitola / Monastir, Maty G. is overwhelmed by the size of the huge cemetery stretched out on the high hill, wondering what sculptural element he can create, an element that will be visible on this background that reduces everything in sight.

December 2015, Bitola, Maty G. captures the idea (or the idea captures Maty G.) (photo: Hedva Goldschmidt)

Initial sketch of the sundial sculpture

Maty G. and his son, David Ben Grunberg, are working on various ideas for the planned memorial park

Rendering of the sundial sculpture on site

Maty G. in his studio working on a small scale model

June 2018, Bitola, metal workshop, CNC machine cutting metal. Maty G. with Zvonko the owner and the manager.

Maty G. explains the importance of the project to the workers, encouraging motivation

visiting the site, at the cemetery

Volunteers from Israel, Germany and Macedonia exposed around 4,000 tombstones. Thousands of other tombstones are resting under ground, waiting to be exposed by more sophisticated means of the generations to come. Now the effort is to restore the tombstones that were exposed.
Maty G. is excited to find two old mulberry trees at the center of the cemetery, near the location of the sundial sculpture. One is red mulberry and the other is white. Mulberry trees accompanied his childhood with the taste of heaven and shirts stained irreparably to his mother's grief.

At the cemetery, the concrete platform on which the sundial sculpture will be installed

The city, which over the years approached the cemetery, looks in amazement at what is going on.

Meanwhile, in the metal workshop, the sundial sculpture is approaching its planned shape

Next week Maty G. and astronomer Ilan Manulis will leave for Macedonia. Astronomer Ilan Manulis is the director of the observatory at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot. Ilan's calculations escort every step that Maty G. makes. M.G. and Ilan will mark the scale of the hours on the sculpture, before it will be painted in bright yellow, so it will be clearly seen on the background of the green mountain of the cemetery. The yellow color of the badge the Jews were required to wear on their lapels to be marked as Jews during world war 2. Ilan and Maty will also make sure that the sculpture is positioned correctly, pointing to the true north, and showing the precise hour of the sun.
To be continued...
Astronomer Ilan Manulis - https://www.ilan-manulis.co.il/

For many years Maty G. has been obsessed with the concept of time. The idea of creating a sundial was born following a number of sundial sculptures he created.