Giant hand of the desert in Chile

Giant hand protruding from the Atacama desert in Chile glance  looks like the last remnants of a lost civilization, but in fact this is a work of large-scale sculpture by  artist Mario Irarrazábal .

 Mario Irarrazábal is a researcher and art philosophy at the University of Notre Dame in India, and theology at the University Pontificia of Italy. Then he come in the field of sculpture under the guidance of German Otto Waldemar.

It is also called the hand of the desert with a different name is "Mano del Desierto". The  mysterious sculpture made the feeling melancholy located along the Pan-American highway as if to remind the tourists thought about the tragic reality of human.

Mano del Desierto situated at an altitude of 1,100 m above sea level, distance the Antofagastak city of Chile  about 75 km south. Under the sponsorship of the local organization Corporacion Pro Antofagasta,  this sculpture was unveiled on the day 03.28.1992.

Like the well-known British sculptor Antony Gormley ,  Irarrazábal used human form in his many works. Hands raised in this isolated desert contains many human emotions,     Sculpture as a  means to communicate his topics such as injustice, sadness, loneliness and suffering ...  in this society.

Impression sculpture "hands in the desert" high 36m  made of iron and cement. Exaggerated the size of the sculptures. With exaggerated size plus cold gray shades, hand desert is reminding us of the helpless and vulnerable of human .

Shortly after the announcement, Hand of the desert has quickly become a tourist attract visitors. Unfortunately,  expressive sculpture also attracted many destructive hands.Those who call themselves artists constantly smeared graffiti on the statue  due no guard .This has caused much discomfort to visitors and also required the organizing have periodic cleaning for the statue.