Unendliche Schleife / Infinite Loop

Leipzig mathematician and astronomer August Ferdinand Möbius discovered the principle of the Möbius strip in the middle of the 19th century. Max Bill first became fascinated with the subject in the 1930s and has since incorporated it in several of his sculptures.

Made of highly polished red tranas granite, this work was completed in 1936 and shown at the Triennale di Milano. The mathematical figure corresponds to the concrete artist’s intentions in a special way: In his work, he did not want to make references or provide an image of nature or illustration; instead, he wanted to depict pure form. The Möbius strip, which is just an infinite edge, is particularly suitable for this purpose – it has a specific aesthetic and challenges viewers to understand and visually explore the form.

Further reading:
Public Art Ruhr. Die Metropole Ruhr und die Kunst im öffentlichen Raum. Eds. Walter Smerling and Ferdinand Ulrich on behalf of the RuhrKunstMuseen, Cologne 2012, ISBN 978-3-8632-134-0, p. 24.