Desert Breath, El Gouna

[Winged Isis]

Message from the Creators:
Google Maps/Earth by entering the following coordinates: 27°22’50.10″N, 33°37’54.62″E
Desert Breath, El Gouna, Egypt,
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 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.

The choice of the spiral functions on two levels: First, it symbolizes and coexists with the infinity of the desert. The spiral can theoretically expand forever, but it has a definite point of departure — the source of its energy. Secondly, each cone is created according to its distance from the center point — to form a logarithmic spiral.

So as the viewer begins to walk from the outside to the center, the cones begin to diminish in scale. It happens so gradually, that it’s almost unnoticeable. It’s only revealed when, suddenly, the viewer gets the sensation that they’ve shifted in scale, growing larger as they walk. In this way, we begin to understand the relation between the human scale and that of the desert.

When you get to the following, click on the photo and then again to see all the others:

[Yildez]

Amazing! Thanks for posting this Winged Isis. If I had known of it's existence I would definitely have tried to visit when I was staying in El Gouna earlier this year.

[Bullet Magnet]

Everything is a vortex ! as symbolised by the spiral...

[HEPZIBAH]

I've seen photographs of this or similar sand art before. I never ceased to be amazed and amused by it.

[newcastle]

Amazing! Thanks for posting this Winged Isis. If I had known of it's existence I would definitely have tried to visit when I was staying in El Gouna earlier this year.

For obvious reasons it's best seen from the air...and you can when you fly out of Hurghada!