Michael Sebastian Haas Hangs A Monumental Square Of Blue Above The Mediterranean

The work of Berlin-based conceptual artist Michael Sebastian Haas centers on kinetic installations that combine painting, landscape and architectural interventions with textiles. The most recent of these “evolving systems” is titled ‘Interface (Field of Blue)’, a temporary land art installation on the Greek island of Paxos.

Created as a part of Paxos Contemporary (P-CAP), a program which asked contributing artists to consider the island’s landscape as a new exhibition format—open at all times of the day, and accessible within a day’s hike. Haas describes the work as an “intense” and “private” way of approaching both the physical and emotional geography of a place. Situated at the head of Avlaki bay, the installation consists of 100 meters of steel cable anchored to the land and a piece of fabric 225 square meters in size which hangs from the cable. “Intertwined with the“Intertwined with the topography and daily wind climate, it shows a sequence of views over the day” topography and daily wind climate, it shows a sequence of views over the day”, explains Haas in his statement about the work. At the beginning of the day, the blue square seems to levitate above the bay. With the rising noon wind, the textile is lifted to a horizontal position, where Haas notes that it remains until late afternoon. As the sea winds calm in the evening, the square becomes a dark movement barely visible against the sky. “The ‘Interface’ is placed where the elements of sea and land face,” Haas concludes, “and where humans feel the need to leave and to arrive”.