You are in a small square in front of the Rabenštejnská Gallery, in the centre of České Budějovice. The plaza is paved with cobblestones and framed by historic buildings with ornate façades and tall windows. The area is open to pedestrians, with benches nearby and a view toward the river.
In front of you is a large outdoor sculpture by Anna Torre titled Aries. The piece stands about one metre and half tall and weighs around 900 kilograms. It rests on a square metal base at ground level, allowing people to walk around it and explore it from all angles.
The sculpture represents a human head in a stylised, abstract form. It is oriented upright and mounted on a square base. The overall shape of the head is elongated and oval, with smooth, rounded contours.
The sculpture has a gray-orange tint. The part that represents the forehead and the top of the head has a slightly lighter shade of gray. From the eye level, the sculpture has a gray-orange tint down. The surface finish is matte. The overall structure creates a bumpy impression, as if it were created by gradual layering. Each layer creates a thin strip that wraps the sculpture in one level around its entire circumference. Another strip of the next layer is placed on top of it. When viewed as a whole, we can clearly see each sub-layer and together they form a kind of structured layered texture.
The facial features are simplified. The eyes are almond-shaped and slightly sunken, with small, round depressions in the middle that indicate the pupils. The nose is long, narrow and symmetrical, protruding forward in a smooth line. The lips are tight and full, creating a neutral expression.
On both sides of the head, say in the area of the ears, there are prominent spiral reliefs. These are smooth and symmetrical spirals protruding to the sides. These spirals are circular and continuous, with a central depression. This contrasts with the otherwise minimal decoration of the sides of the head. The back of the head is rounded and follows the curve of the skull.
The statue has no neck or body. It ends right at the bottom of the head and rests firmly on a supporting base.
Anna Torre was born in San Miniato in 1994, she studied sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Carrara, where she obtained a first and second degree in the same discipline. Today she is a sculptress who works mainly with marble and terracotta. Her artistic research stems from observing the human figure, often female, in the act of doing something. Her figures seem taken by surprise or otherwise immersed in contemplation of what attracts them. Although the works are often figurative, a free and reinterpreted anatomy emerges, leading the figures depicted to seem dreamlike and not real. What interests the artist is not to represent reality as it is, but to evoke a mental image, similar to a state of mind. Aries is a sculpture originally created by Anna from marble. It was subsequently 3D scanned, and the data were then used for 3D printing an enlarged version of Aries’ head in concrete, which was produced by the Scoolpt studio in České Budějovice. The original face is exhibited at the Rabenštejnská Gallery.