The present issue of Maarav accompanies the opening of the Neo-Monumental exhibition which engages with the attitudes of contemporary artists and their modes of encounter with the physical presence of monuments in Israel’s public space, and with the narrative contexts they seek to maintain. As in the past, this issue constitutes another space in which the discussion on the subject of the exhibition expands to additional realms that do not necessarily appear in the exhibition. Articles written by four different authors are included in this compilation. In her article on Boris Schatz, Merav Yerushalmi examines the relationship between his work and activity and Bulgarian nationalism, indicating an attitude that would later influence his activity in the local Israeli space; Adi Englman writes about Dani Karavan’s Negev Monument and the spatial situations taking place around it; Hila Cohen Schneiderman writes about the Monument to the Unknown Construction Worker created by the late Shelly Federman; and Manca Bajec concludes this compilation with an article on ways of commemoration and contending with memory in Srpska, which was part of the former Yugoslavia.

This issue is the first in which we expand the thematic engagement with additional compilations of articles. Included in this issue are compilations on The Complete Jessy Cohen Museum edited by Gal Leshem, and one on the concept of “gesture” edited by Avital Barak. The idea of this structure is to create an ongoing discussion and a corpus of knowledge around specific topics, and to create a series of compilations over a number of issues.

Like recent issues of Maarav, new articles will be added to this issue over the coming weeks and continue to expand engagement with the various topics.