The eight-pointed star, which can be enclosed in a circle, can be traced back to Babylonian mythology, where it was the symbol of the goddess Ishtat. Later it was, among other things, adopted into Moorish art and can therefore be found in many places in Spain today.
In Teruel (Aragon), which is situated close to the small village of Villar del Cobo, where Eva Koch’s mother was born and later adopted to be taken away under dramatic circumstances, the town has made the form so much its own that they call the star ‘The Star of Teruel’. And it is as a personal salute to Teruel that in her sculpture Eva Koch unites the point, the star and the circle in the form of 8 bronze points.
The physical point suggesting a larger form below is a form Eva Koch has worked with since the start of her career, while Spanish history made its entrance with her major work, the comprehensive interactive video installation, Villar, 2001.
The Star of Teruel is made up of 8 bronze domes with a circumference of 20 cm and 8 cylinders with the same circumference, but with heights varying from 1 to 6 cm, which hung on both sides of a wall create two different pictures that subsequently fuse into a single (illusory) image in the viewer’s consciousness.
