Ariel Sharon in a coma becomes an art installation

Ariel Sharon, once one of the Mideast's most controversial leaders, is the subject of an unusual art exhibition presently on display in Tel Aviv. Israeli artist Noam Braslavsky has created a life-size sculpture of the comatose Sharon lying eyes-open in his hospital bed.



"This exhibition is an installation, not only a sculpture, which activated the viewer to take part in an emotional process. I choose to take Sharon because Sharon is kind of an open nerve in Israeli society, which activated all the spectrum of emotional feelings to what being an Israeli is," Braslavsky said at the exhibition. Ra'anan Gissin, a former advisor and friend of Sharon, said that although he admired the sculpture artistically, he did not want to remember the former prime minister, at one time nicked name the bulldozer, that way.

"I don't want to remember Sharon as he is now and this clearly a vivid reflection of how he is now, but as he was. And when he was, he wasn't lying in bed, I mean that's the last thing... but (he was) always active, always doing something for better or for worse, but a man in action, a man who's constantly active, constantly leading. So I have a problem personally with this very very, I would say unique piece of art," Gissin said. Sharon, an ex-army general long reviled in the Arab world, became a towering figure in Israeli politics. The former Israeli prime minister had for decades been a key person in shaping the Middle East.



For years Sharon had promoted expansion of the Jewish settlements in the West Bank before making an about-turn to give up Israel's settlements in the Gaza Strip. After suffering a massive stroke in January 2006, the then-prime minister was put into a medically-induced coma. Doctors later tried without success to rouse him and he has remained unconscious since.