Sculpture Line
Aš 2023

Now we are standing in Aš in the centre of the town on the Post Office Square and presenting a statue by Václav Fiala, a sculptor from the Czech Republic. "Moon" from 2018 is the name of the granite sculpture. It measures 2 x 2.5 metres and is 1.8 metres high. Its weight is 2 tonnes. The shape could not be created from a single piece. It was assembled, which meant additional difficulties in its execution, because the individual parts had to fit together and should be joined as smoothly as possible, so to speak "without seams". The curvatures must be exactly the same. You can imagine a full moon, but also a new moon. And if one stands in the hole - does one then become "The Man in the Moon" ? (Translator's note: Miloš Forman's Oscar-winning film, but otherwise the German expression "Mann im Mond" is a frequent and familiar theme in songs, fairy tales, short stories). The coloured sub-circles on both sides also imply "crescent moon". However, the title need not be understood so narrowly and literally. If you want, you can ignore it completely and call the work, for example, "View" or "Outlook" - or give it no name at all...without giving it any name. It is simply a successful, very beautiful, harmonious form that is simply allowed to impress us. The little accents of colour that the artist adds make the sculpture even more exciting. Looking through the aperture of this contemporary art allows the old chimney, so familiar in the cityscape, to be shown in a different light - an unusual one. The hitherto familiar way of seeing is changed. A great effect of art. Hans-Joachim Goller