By Avigayil Kadesh
A sculpture incorporating stones from the lowest point on earth is now installed at the highest point on earth -- and vice versa -- thanks to a creative diplomatic notion on the part of Hanan Goder-Goldberger, Israel’s Ambassador to Nepal.
Israeli modernist artist Jojo Ohayon (known simply as Jojo) says the ambassador shared his idea with Dov Litvinoff, mayor of the Tamar Regional Council in which the Dead Sea is located.
Goder-Goldberger proposed taking stones from the Dead Sea and placing them artfully at the base of Mount Everest, and then taking stones from Everest and placing them in a similar fashion at the Dead Sea.
This cross-continental gesture was intended to further cement a warm friendship between the two countries.
In September 2012, the first Nepal-Israel Joint Stamps showing Mount Everest and the Dead Sea were released simultaneously in Nepal and in Israel. The project received a huge response. Both Nepal and Israel are interested in promoting their natural and cultural heritage sites and encouraging additional tourism between the two countries.
Litvinoff liked the ambassador’s idea, and called Jojo. Why Jojo? Well, the designer and sculptor lives and works at the Dead Sea. His colorful mosaic sculpture already adorns the beach of this lowest place on earth.
Jojo’s previous mosaic sculpture at the Dead SeaLong live the friendship
Jojo accepted the commission. He chose two stones from the shore of the mineral-rich sea, and quickly got to work.
“I made a sculpture of stainless steel with Dead Sea stones, and brought it to Nepal,” he says.
In April 2013, Jojo spent three days there along with Litvinoff; the ambassador and his wife and embassy staff members; officials from Israel’s ministries of Foreign Affairs, Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation; and the Nepal Tourism Board.
Two of those days were spent trekking nearly 4,000 meters (13,000 feet) up to Namche Bazaar, “the gateway to the high Himalayas” at the base of Mount Everest. The sculpture was installed there with great pomp and ceremony, says Jojo, filmed by a cameraman from Israel’s Channel 2.
An Israeli television crew went along
to record the historic momentThe artist stresses that though he climbed up by foot, the 88-pound monument was carried by two Nepalese young men on their backs. The inscription begins: "In this site are placed stones brought from the Dead Sea in Israel.” The flags of both countries are depicted at the top.
Jojo at the base of Mount Everest with his Nepalese guides, who carried the sculptureAt the end of May 2013, the second sculpture – incorporating two stones Jojo gathered in Namche Bazaar – was ceremoniously installed at the new ecological park Kikar S’dom at the south shore of the Dead Sea.
The project was jointly sponsored by the Embassy of Israel in Kathmandu, the Embassy of Nepal in Israel and the governments of the respective countries.
“Long live the friendship between Nepal and Israel!” the artist exclaims.