Environmental installation art is one of the truly special forms of expression, for it uses the environment (and not always an aesthetically pleasing location) as a medium to convey ideas about existence, nature, and the human connection to it all. If you ever get an opportunity to see an environmental art installation or exhibit, we highly encourage you to check it out!
One of the most amazing examples of environmental installation art can be found in the Sahara Desert along the Egyptian border of the Red Sea, and though it sounds outrageous, an art collective known as D.A.ST. Arteam completed this installation nearly two decades ago. The collective was formed specifically to make this land installation in 1995, with the project coming to fruition in 1997.
The D.A.ST. Arteam is comprised of installation artist Danae Stratou, industrial designer and architect Alexandra Stratou, and architect Stella Konstantinidis. Their common desire to work with the desert as a medium was the seed that led to the concept for an installation so big it can still be seen on Google Earth images 17 years after its completion!
Entitled Desert Breath, the work is described thusly by collaborator Danae Stratou:
“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.
Desert Breath expands in an area of 100.000 m2, in the eastern Sahara desert bordering the Red Sea in El Gouna, Egypt. It is a site-specific work that generated out of our perception of the site itself. Its construction consists of the displacement of 8.000 m3 of sand formed so as to create precise positive and negative conical volumes. The conical volumes form two interlocking spirals that move out from a common centre with a phase difference of 180o degrees in the same direction of rotation. The centre is a 30-metre diameter vessel formed in a W-shaped section and filled with water to its rim.
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 viewpoint: from above as a visual image, and from the ground, walking the spiral pathway, a physical experience.
The construction of Desert Breath was completed in March 1997. Desert Breath still exists becoming through its slow disintegration, an instrument to measure the passage of time.”
Check out this incredible video D.A.ST. took of the construction of their installation, which commanded an impressive nine months. Clearly their efforts paid off, and it remains a monument to everyone who has ever pondered existence and their place within it.
Images via mobiledia.com, thisiscolossal.com
