Trade-winds was the second work Maria Sezer was inspired to make when she saw the mihrab in the Haydar Paşa Gallery.

For this installation the artist reproduced the mihrab, which is a left-over from the time that the building was converted to be used as a mosque. The mihrab has the shape of an arrow and the artist laid this shape on the floor of the gallery, in the exact opposite direction to the mihrab, connected to it. Two connected arrows, each pointing in opposite directions symbolizing the coming and going of the trade ships, carrying produce from the island, an important one of them being oranges.

The mihrab was drawn with pieces of dried orange peels, symbolizing the cargo of the ships, orange pigment, which can be interpreted as the sun or possibly a big orange and blue pigment, symbolizing the sea and the journeys made over it.

In this way indicating the importance of the directions of the winds for the ancient sailors and the rising and setting of the sun for the growing of the rich produce. The rich produce of the island, in this case the oranges, and its position in the Mediteranean Sea, secured trade and connections between cultures.  

‘Orange Blossom’ was a ca. 2,50 mt. wide Orangetree-flower laid down on the floor of the former St. Catherine’s Church under its apse.  In many Gothic churches, big round windows called ‘rose-windows’ are found above the entrance door, often they are made up of stained glass. Here the rose-window was an ‘orange-window and laid out on the floor.

Since Cyprus is an island which has abundant orange trees the artist wanted to make a connection with one of the island’s more important parts of the vegetation which has shaped much of the island’s culture.

The big orange blossom on the floor was made up of many small orange blossoms cut out of orange peels. 150 kg of oranges were cut, pressed for juice with the juice handed out to anyone who passed by, cleaned of the fruit’s flesh, each one separately cut by hand into a flower shaped like Orange blossom and than dried. Like this, Maria Sezer intended to pay homage to the orange by bringing back the flower as it was before it came to be a fruit, intending to connect past, present and future both in an organic but also in a cultural way.