STRAIGHT LABYRINTH
Date
2003
Location
Day of Poetry Festival, Ráday street, Budapest
Size
3*24
Materials
bamboo and iron joints
plastic agricultural net
Additional installation elements
2 plastic sheets with printed text
2 sources of light
1 old fashioned telephone on a foot-stall
Client
Ráday Bookstore, György Orbán
Staff
Installation design: Zsófia Bérczi
Construction design: Tóbiás Terebessy
Contributors: Boldizsár Kő, András Milkovits, Adrienn Gyöngyösi
Short description
Installation is based on the poem of János Pilinszky with the same title (Straight Labyrinth / Egyenes labirintus).
Detailed description
The labyrinth consists of three corridors. In the two external corridors heading along straight flow is possible. At the entrance one can see the poem printed on a plastic sheet and behind of it the focus of a light. This focus is presented in the poem as follows:
“What will it be like in the end, this free-fall on open wings, this flight into the fiery focus, the communal nest?” . Getting around the sheet from the right one has two choices. One is to continue straight to the focus – this leads to the exit of the labyrinth with a right turn at the end of the way. The second choice is to follow the middle corridor heading to the centre of the labyrinth. In the midway there is a foot-stall with a black telephone waiting on it. This is in fact a dead end, but lifting the receiver one can listen to the poet himself reciting his poem. In the middle of every labyrinth there is something offering the possibility to transform, reborn and experience a catharsis. After turning back, reaching the focus and finally getting out from the labyrinth the traveller is going to be a different person from the one who had entered the labyrinth.
