La Mano (Punta del Este)

A giant sculpture of five fingers rising from the beach sand, the emblem of Punta del Este.

It was made in February 1982 by the Chilean artist Mario Irarrázabal. It is also called Los Dedos (The Fingers) or Hombre emergiendo a la vida (Man Emerging into Life). The fingers are made of concrete and plastic, strengthened with steel bars and metal mesh, and covered with a solvent that protects them from wear. Tourists take photos of it all the time, and copies appear on postcards.

A warning in the sand

Irarrázabal was the youngest of nine sculptors invited to the first International Meeting of Modern Sculpture in the Open Air in Punta del Este. There was an argument about the spots in a public square, so he chose the beach instead. He wanted the hand to look like someone drowning, as a warning to swimmers. He finished it in just six days, even though he had the whole summer.

Still standing

That summer sculptors from around the world made works on the beach, but only Irarrázabal's stayed in place. It has hardly changed since. The sculpture made him famous worldwide, and he later made near or exact copies in Madrid (1987), in the Atacama Desert in Chile as Mano del Desierto (1992), and in Venice (1995). Punta del Este is often nicknamed "the Hamptons of South America".

On the globe

The model shows five giant fingers rising from the beach sand, the emblem of Punta del Este.