“He who loves and builds labyrinths will always be nostalgic of the pleasure of being freed and therefore nostalgic for an experience, fundamentally simple: the clear and unique libaration from the senselessness of misleading paths.”       Gustav Renè Hocke

Western culture has always explored the maze since the beginning of time. Its identity, the multiple signs of searching, finding, losing and finding again, the myths that describe it are conserved in the maze. “Being in it” and “moving thru it” are a metaphor of survival and condition of existence. But the archetype of the maze is not a prerogative of western culture. Labyrinthic representations have been found in every era and in every civilization. It is the absolute metaphor of the tortous, inextricable, troubled path of life, of existence. It is a collective archetype that crosses culture and time.

The metaphorical figurative of the maze is enormous as is its innumerous representations: from calligraphic writing to music, from heraldry to painting art, from alchemy to architecture, from dance to play are all necessary labyrinthic manifestations. However, in the study of this complicated archetype, there is always something difficult to explain, something unexplainable. This is due to the fact that the problem of the labyrinth is the labyrinth itself. The labyrinth is a mystery that wants to be preserved without being revealed, but it is also “a non place” where this mystery remains.

Mystery and intrigue are indispensable to the existence of the labyrinth. It is born from the necessity to hide a secret or protect something precious which must be unattainable to others. Defense of the treasure and perdition of the intruder. There is no limit to the form of the labyrinth and the aspect it will assume in a certain era, in a certain social context; it will always be representative of a style, of a concept of life, of a way of being. Therefore it is clear that with this symbol, in the various historical periods, man represents his own fate, considering however an essential dogma: the knowledge that we can always reach the freedom of thought.

Emerging from the labyrinth of the general and massified thought is already a conquest which is worth existing and “resisting”. The victory over the labyrinth can, in some way, coincide with the conquest of the right to be different. Pass thru the mirror with us. Let’s get lost, share and resist together.

3D ANIMATION VIDEO LINK… click below to play!

CONCEPT:  Lorenzo Marcellini – Filippo Persichetti

PROJECT ASSISTANT: Asia Abbatangelo

ENGIREERING CONSULTANT: Valerio Fonti

ARCHITECTURAL CONSULTANT: Elisa Trapani

3D ANIMATION VIDEO: Stefano Cianchetta

GRAPHICS and LIGHT DESIGN: Gelo – Lollo

PHOTO: Stefano Meluni – Michele Curci

INTERNAL FITTINGS: Alessandra Mastroserio

PRODUCTION and PROMOTION: Trauma Studio

A_MAZE is a project of TRAUMA STUDIO, a collective which operates in a wide range of arts, varying from electronic and digital production/distribution to the more recent expressions of visual arts, from the evolution of performing arts and multimedia installations to art and cultural promotions. Trauma Studio is a laboratory dedicated to the artists, the technicians and the curious, where one can meet, share experiences, develop projects and find/invent the instruments necessary to realize them. This project manifests a specific way to create art today, spreading culture and producing information, denying author’s rights in favor of new systems of sharing peer-to-peer, of open-source softwares and of copyleft productions. An open project, already promoter of collaborations and contacts on an international level.

“We are all mad. I am mad. You are mad.” “How do you know that I’m mad” asked Alice. “You have to be” replied the Cat “otherwise you wouldn’t have arrived here.”                        Lewis Carroll