Manos Gigantes 

Curator: Here we see "Manos Gigantes", or "Giant Hands," carved from wood by Francisco Serra Andrés. Though undated, its powerful form invites consideration of humanity's place in history and its aspirations. Editor: Wow, I'm immediately drawn in by the texture. You can almost feel the roughness of the wood, but there's also such elegance in the way the fingers are posed. It’s like a moment of quiet contemplation, rendered in solid form. Curator: Indeed. While Serra Andrés leans towards realism in depicting human form, we see those rough tool marks that hint to a raw quality that stands in stark contrast with the smooth texture from the polishing, perhaps suggesting tension between our potential for perfection and our intrinsic human fallibility? Editor: Maybe, or perhaps a quiet nod to the labor. Like each tool mark is a whispered story, the ghost of the artist's hand still present long after the work's completion. Hands creating hands. A strange mirror to our own grasping nature, literally made into material substance. It invites us to really consider that relationship. Curator: And consider it we must, especially if we contextualize within twentieth-century art trends—particularly after the World Wars—how artists tried to depict mankind in ways that showed them either as heroic individuals or a part of a collective working machine... I'm always struck by how it seems suspended in its intention. Is it beseeching? Is it blessing? Editor: Precisely. It has both, doesn’t it? I feel like I've walked into the middle of a conversation that has been ongoing since before time. All those whispered words and ideas are still there, latent inside. You know, like when you read an old diary or stumble across a forgotten photograph. Curator: Thank you, those impressions truly resonate and open further reflection regarding its function and presence. Editor: My pleasure.