Liviu Mocan was born in 1955 and studied at the Fine Arts faculty in the University of Cluj. His public sculptures have been erected in Germany, the US, Egypt, Norwayas well as in his native Romania. In his home city of Cluj, the artist was appointed to create a sculpture commemorating the martyrs of the 1989 uprising which overthrew communism. “Shot Pillars” is the original and imaginative work that stands on a busy pedestrian area in the city’s main square (right). Liviu’s most recent monumental sculpture, entitled “Illseed” was unveiled outside a public hospital in Auckland by the prime minister of New Zealand, Helen Clark.

I am happy to be a sculptor. The whole world is a gallery with sculptures. In order to create a three-dimensional object I have to take a piece of material from nature. I start working… When my hands touch the marble or the granite or the wood, When my hands deepen in soft clay, I touch God’s hands. God’s hands are there waiting for me. I feel them, I try to see, I try to listen… This is how, resculpting His sculptures, I tie myself, day by day, to the Universe. This is how, resculpting His sculptures, I understand, day by day, how inadequate I am. I am a sculptor, I am a sculpture. I call myself in the way I was named: Liviu Mocan