Irony or mockery: a huge "piece of feces" in Moscow was replaced with a red scoop

A new art object has been installed on the site of Urs Fischer's previously dismantled scandalous sculpture "Big Clay No. 4" on Bolotnaya Embankment in Moscow. This was reported by the press service of the House of Culture "HES-2" in the telegram channel.

"On the descent to A sculpture of Klas Oldenburg and Cauchy van Bruggen, world—famous pop art classics, appeared along the drainage channel ... "Garden shovel" is a sculpture in the form of a garden tool familiar to everyone, magnified many times. Other works by Oldenburg and van Bruggen include a giant ice cream cone, a clothespin, a safety pin, and a badminton shuttlecock," the report says.

The sculpture is a red garden scoop with a height of 7 meters. It is mounted on a concrete pedestal. At the same time, when the sculpture was exhibited, for example, in Des Moines (USA), the giant shoulder blade simply stuck out of the lawn.

"The sculpture not only refers to the theme of creative work as a way to find harmony in a changing world, but also reminds of how close nature, man and culture are, because the Latin word cultura literally means "cultivation, cultivation of the earth." This work is about the cultivation of new ideas and meanings that can arise from the simplest things — games and fantasies," explains the idea of the authors of HES-2.

As EADaily reported, the sculpture "Big Clay No. 4" with a height of 13 meters was installed on Bolotnaya Embankment in 2021. Previously, Fischer's work was exhibited in the squares of New York and Florence. The work consists of pieces of clay, kneaded by the artist's hand, and then magnified many times and cast in aluminum. It has become both a metaphor for the human need to create, and an illustration of one of the missions of the House of Culture — to give everyone such an opportunity.

The sculpture was critically received by Muscovites. Fischer's work was often called a "piece of feces" on social networks, and even during her stay in Manhattan, critic Jeremy Sigler called her "the most expensive shit in the art casino." Fischer himself responded to criticism with the thesis — "art is what you make of it."

In July of this year, the "Big Clay No. 4" was removed from Bolotnaya Embankment, explaining the dismantling by planned rotation of works of art in the urban environment.