Naturebreath – Danae Stratou

09Sep08

Exploring nature, our bodies and our inner selves: What starts with games during childhood evolves into scientific / philosophical / artistic research as we get older. That source of inspiration, our distant memories, links Danae Stratou’s work to Penone and Mendieta’s: laying on the ground, rolling into mud, molding the earth, breathing onto it, becoming one with nature. Danae Stratou’s work entices us to take that trip to exploration and knowledge once more, or better, urges us: Breathe! She uses this imperative to motivate the viewers “to live life to the full; deeply and consciously” (Danae Stratou, text on her website about Breathe Wall).

So take the following steps to explore the artist’s website and then come back to see the pictures of her latest installation “Breathing Circle”…

Danae Stratou, Desert Breath (1997)

A giant artwork of 100,000m2 consisting of two interlocking logarithmic spirals of 178 cones, one of protruding and one of incised cones of sand, that get bigger as we move from the center to the outer part of the work. At the center there is a small circular water pond. The day of its completion the work was left to the forces of nature that began to eliminate it. It was supposed to last only six months, but Google Earth still shows it (I’m not sure however whether it exists).
The artist says that the work resonates the desert landscape with the sandhills. I believe it also looks like a mirror of the galaxy…

click and then go: home > videos > desert breath in order to see the video

Danae Stratou, “Breathe” (2000)

“Breathe” a warm, dark, esoteric environment, where one could hear the sound of breathing; in the centre of the space there was a circular part of earth that moved up and down, like a human belly inflating and deflating with air.

click and then go home > videos > breathe

Danae Stratou, Breathing circle (2008)

BREATHE: Inside the circle created by these seven letters, just earth. If you stand or better if you lay down in its center, you can hear the sound of breathing projected by speakers hidden in the trees above, which feels like the sound of the earth breathing. The metallic mirror-like surface of the letters gives you a reflection of the trees and the sky onto the earth.

The installation was a nice experience for me… and some of the artist’s words still ring in my head…