Exploring Depths: The Art of Matan Sacofsky

On October 7th, I rushed to the southern kibbutzim on the Gaza strip to fight. The shift from the solitude of the studio and the near-exclusive focus on myself to the role of a soldier risking his life for the common good was absolute. This transition completely altered the direction of my work as an artist; war exposes the cruelest side of reality, leaving no soul untouched. When I returned to the studio after my first tour of duty, I looked at my orchid paintings with new eyes. The orchid that had stood in the studio had now withered, and I felt a sharp dissonance between the paintings I had created until then and the reality I had just come back from. Some of the works in this series were born before the war, others took shape between my deployments, and some were created after all the hostages had returned. During those days, I brought materials gathered directly from the battlefield into the studio, weaving them directly into the body of the work itself. This series is a painted journal that accompanied me throughout the war—my attempt to find beauty inside a wounded world.