'MONOLITH Fever' has broken out in Spain as the bizarre trend for emulating Stanley Kubrick's futuristic 1968 film prop expands across the globe.
The epic, 2001: Space Odyssey centres on a plain, black, rectangular 'sculpture' appearing out of nowhere and which turns out to be the work of aliens – and, on the eve of what would be the 20th anniversary year of this fictitious finding, similar monoliths have been cropping up on either side of the pond.
Firstly, a helicopter discovered one of these strange metal posts in a remote part of the Utah desert in mid-November, and it was taken down that same week by a group of environmental activists who were concerned about the crowds it was drawing in.
A second one, this time with a triangular base, turned up on the Batca Doamnei hillside near the north-eastern Romanian town of Piatra Neamt, towards the end of November, and was also removed.
The third popped up a week ago in a mountainous part of the central coast road through California, disappearing the following day, and a fourth one has since appeared in The Netherlands.
Now, Spain seems to have jumped on the bandwagon: A tall, thin gunmetal-grey squared post, which looks to be made from steel, was spotted at the weekend in Ayllón (Segovia province, Castilla y León).
It was set up in the ruins of the Santiago church, and it is claimed that hundreds of locals have already headed up there armed with cameras.
Ayllón's mayoress has debunked rumours that the council has asked people to stop visiting it.
In fact, she, herself, took a trip up there on Monday morning, and describes it as a 'crude structure made from three sheets of metal bolted together', fitted rather precariously.
So precariously, the mayoress says, that it has already fallen down several times.
The 'Monolith Pandemic' seems to have been started by a group of sculptors based in the State of New México, USA, who call themselves 'The Most Famous Artist' and who have shared pictures of the different stages of the Utah post's construction on Instagram.
They even sell their monoliths via their website, for a price of around US$45,000 apiece (about €37,000).
According to website Mashable.com, which quotes the group's founder Matty Mo, 'The Most Famous Artist' is only responsible for the Utah and California monoliths, not the European ones, but that more of them are expected to appear across the USA 'in the next few days or weeks'.
Matty Mo is reported as calling them a 'service' and 'authentic objet d'art', and stating, ironically, that there was 'no better way to end such a rubbish year' than to let everyone believe, just for a short time, that Earth had been contacted by aliens, 'only to be disappointed and find out that it was The Most Famous Artist playing a prank on them'.
The group is already infamous worldwide after an incident several years ago when they altered the famous, giant Hollywood letters to read 'Hollyweed'.
It appears Instagram has deleted their photographs – but no such wipeout has happened in Spain: The above picture of the 'Monolith of the Week' was taken by the mayoress of Ayllón to be shared on the town hall website and in local and national media.
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