Fans of Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty will love “Desert Breath,” a stunning and monumental land art installation located in the arid Sahara desert. Created by artist Danae Stratou, industrial designer Alexandra Stratou, and architect Stella Constantinides, this cosmic, swirling environmental artwork was constructed in 1997 over the span of two years. Centered on what had been a 98-foot artificial pool of water, 178 conical sand mounds and depressions spiral out to cover an area of nearly one million square feet. Seven years later, “Desert Breath” is still visible, but will gradually fade away as the wind and other elements erode the spiraling mounds back to a flat desert plain.
From the description:
“The project is rooted in our common desire to work in the desert. In our mind’s eye the desert was a place where one experiences infinity. We were addressing the desert as a state of mind, a landscape of the mind. The point of departure was the conical form, the natural formation of the sand as a material. It is a site-specific work that grows out of our perception of the site its self. Located between the sea and a body of mountains at the point where the immensity of the sea meets the immensity of the desert. The work functions on two different levels in terms of view point: from above as a visual image; from the ground a physical experience while walking the spiral pathway. Desert Breath still exists becoming through its slow disintegration, an instrument to measure the passage of time.”
“Desert Breath” | Land Art Installation | By D.A.ST. Arteam, Egypt (1997) from Danae Stratou on Vimeo.
Images via Danae Stratou
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Published in Blog
Ernst Glaeser
It was, and still is a nice piece of landart. Even if the introduction tries to imply that this is in the middle of the Sahara, which it isn’t, it is just a few miles away from the Red Sea, it is nice and has a great spiritual moment when you are physically experiencing it.