Culis Monumentalibus, Oviedo

The urban sculpture known as Culis monumentalibus, located on Pelayo Street, in front of the Campoamor Theatre, in the city of Oviedo, Principality of Asturias, Spain, is one of more than a hundred that adorn the streets of the aforementioned Spanish city.

The urban landscape of this city, is adorned by sculptural works, generally commemorative monuments dedicated to characters of special relevance at first, and more purely artistic since the late twentieth century. The idea of installing this sculpture is directly related to the initiative since the nineties of the twentieth century launched the government team of the City Council of Oviedo, in order to create an open-air museum in the city.

The sculpture, which bears the name in Latin, made in black inlaid bronze and granite, is the work of Eduardo Úrculo, and is dated 2001.The work represents an ass of monumental proportion, which, on rounded buttocks, repeated on both sides, is raised on a granite pedestal. The title was taken by Úrculo from an article by Camilo José Cela, published in 1977, in which he mentions Úrculo's "passion" for painting asses.

It has been a sculpture that has not left anyone indifferent, there are detractors of its installation and there are also staunch defenders, reaching the controversy of fellow citizens of Oviedo to become the subject of talk shows and opinion columns of some other media.