The Temple of Heroes  
On the morning of October 7th, 2023, we were hit with shock. Order 8 - we were stationed on the Lebanon border, with focus on Gaza and the northern border where a war was unfolding that we still couldn't comprehend. Hezbollah was launching rockets and artillery shells towards IDF positions. There were casualties. Disconnected from the phone for weeks, but long before I got it back, I could update that about thirty friends were wounded, about ten killed. We were a team of twenty, all of us lost our loved ones, each carrying our burden differently, words became unnecessary.
Friday, the second candle of Hanukkah, marked another day of battles, bombings from morning till night. Positioned in posts, returning fire, we couldn't light the candle. Frustration and anger were intense. The first refreshing break. We left the base alive, knowing others didn't survive.
I decided to dedicate the first break to creating, in memory of fallen comrades who didn't light Hanukkah candles, honoring soldiers in posts who couldn't do it either, and for the captives who didn't light candles this year and will light them with us next year.
From the moment I arrived at the studio until I returned to the front, I spent all this time in my studio, where emotions intertwine. Love, longing, passion, anger, sadness, fear, all mix within each other. In the midst of suffocating reality, preventing us from escaping. There are channels that remain free and open to the wind, to dreams, to the arms of starry skies, laughter at night, impossible or unexpected journeys. I painted and still felt shivers along the spine, the smell of burning dust, sun on the neck, dirty teeth, overgrown nails, screams of disagreements, prayers of those afraid the time of parting has come. It seems like the seconds before death stretch into days, into nights. Whether it comes or goes forever, no one wants to think about it, but it's there, close.
Film fragments blend into each other and leave a visible or hidden mark in the "Shrine of My Heroes" series - three years of memories from my service as a fighter in the reconnaissance unit captured in images: friends who are like brothers, missing comrades, a youthful soldier, Hanukkah candles, my farewell letter - one we hesitated to write, fearing it might bring bad luck... Pages of my father's diaries, pages of Jules Vernes, the beloved author who sailed his imagination wherever he wanted to go...
Every canvas of the series turns into a mixed dream, where doors open, where chronology fades, where the end gets lost, there we let ourselves drift, amidst ideas, hoping to find some peace...