Turkish artist presents monumental sculpture at Egypt’s Giza Pyramids

ISTANBUL

Measuring 400 by 400 by 600 centimeters, Pirim’s ‘The King’s Road’ draws inspiration from the ancient routes.

Turkish artist Seçkin Pirim is presenting his monumental marble sculpture “The King’s Road” at Egypt’s Giza Pyramids as part of the sixth edition of Forever Is Now, an international contemporary art exhibition organized by Art D’Égypte.

Curated by Turkish curator Ayça Okay and presented by AWC Contemporary, the 2026 work is displayed on the Giza Plateau, a UNESCO World Heritage site, where contemporary artistic practices meet one of humanity’s oldest architectural legacies.

Returning to the Giza Plateau for its sixth edition, “Forever Is Now” brings together artists from different parts of the world to explore the relationship between ancient civilizations and the present. The exhibition focuses on the geometry, celestial alignments and historical significance of the pyramids, examining connections between ancient knowledge, architecture, humanity and the universe.

Among the participating artists are Jiang Qiong Er, Rochelle-Webster Nembhard, Charlotte Colbert, Raphaele Shirley, Geoffroy Pithon, Abdul Rahman Taha and Emad Abu Grain.

Founded in 2016 by Egyptian curator Nadine Abdel Ghaffar, Art D’Égypte aims to promote Egypt’s cultural heritage and introduce contemporary Egyptian art to international audiences. The initiative, which organizes exhibitions at historically significant sites, came under the patronage of UNESCO in 2019.

AWC Contemporary has collaborated with Art D’Égypte for three years on exhibitions staged at major archaeological sites in the region. Its latest contribution brings Pirim’s work to the Giza Plateau, establishing a dialogue between contemporary Turkish art and Egypt’s historical landscape.

Measuring 400 by 400 by 600 centimeters, “The King’s Road” draws inspiration from the ancient routes that connected temples, quarries, ceremonial grounds and trade centers throughout Egypt. These routes served both practical and symbolic purposes, forming networks shaped by movement, engineering and cultural exchange.

Pirim reinterprets this historical infrastructure through geometry and the possibilities of marble. Its vertical forms and weathered surfaces evoke archaeological traces, while their rhythmic arrangement transforms the sculpture from an isolated object into an immersive spatial experience.

For Pirim, the sculpture offers a reflection on time, cultural memory and continuity, presenting the past not as something static but as a source of knowledge open to reinterpretation.