Kikar Levana is an environmental sculpture that sits atop a small hill, at the Edith Wolfson Park, in Tel Aviv.
The sculpture’s name means White Square. It is located at the highest point in Tel Aviv where the city meets nearby Givatayim.
The main entrance to the park is at the intersection of Ha’Tayasim Ave. and LaGuardia Street. The sculpture is located in a public park that is open all day.
It is created by the Israeli sculptor Dani Karavan, who was born in Tel Aviv on December 7, 1930. He is the son of a landscape architect and he was a member of a kibbutz and he first studied in Israel. He continued his studies in Florence and in Paris.
In the 1960’s and ’70s Karavan did bas-relief work (Knesset, Jerusalem) and stage sets (Martha Graham, Giancarlo Menotti, Batsheva Dance Company).
Dani Karavan has become internationally famous for large-scale environmental works on idealistic themes. The fundamental source of inspiration has been the land of Israel.
Karavan speaks of himself as having been "born in a country where every stone, every piece of land, is filled with memories, a place where every step forward takes one back tens, hundreds and thousands of years".
The fact that he has been a member of the kibbutz also accustomed him to working in a public space and made him rebel against the idea of producing goods for a market.
Karavan emphasizes several things: first of all the physicality of his creative process, and its responsiveness to the actual site – 'to feel, to listen, to smell, to touch, to walk through'. Each work is specially designed for its location and can only belong to this particular place.
Living moving elements such as trees water and wind are of primary importance.
This sculpture spans an area of 30 x 50 meters. It features many of the elements that are familiar in Karavan’s other works, a pyramid, a water channel, a tower (with wind flutes), and a dome with an olive tree in its center.
