The Age of Science

The story

At the entrance to Dimona stands "The Age of Science", a sculpture by Yigal Tumarkin. He began to work on it already in 1962 and made several models in which he examined the relation of the sculpture to the viewer; in 1965 the future sculpture was described as a space that could hold the viewer within it. The form of the shell recurs also in other works of his from those years, such as "Sculpture for the Holocaust" in Nazareth Illit and "Take Me Under Your Wing". At the beginning of 1968 the artist offered the sculpture to the Dimona municipality, and it agreed to put it up within its area — apparently with reference to the Nuclear Research Center in its vicinity. The sculpture was planned anew at a height of thirteen meters, lower than the original plan, and therefore the viewer no longer enters into it. The concrete cone, which also calls to mind a mushroom cloud, is pierced and cut through by a structure made of metal. According to the original plan the sculpture was to be part of a local park, which was not built. The work began at the end of 1968 and was finished in 1969. The construction was funded by the Dimona municipality, which invested thirty thousand Israeli lirot.

• Public art
• Dimona