For ten years, a work of living architecture remained visible only from above, a design to be contemplated from a distance, with no way of actually walking through it or losing oneself among its paths. I find that this kind of transformation, from distant contemplation to a first-hand, lived experience, says a great deal about how the relationship between a project, its symbolic language and the people who experience it changes the moment it is fully opened to direct public use, giving it a new kind of value.
The Borges Labyrinth stands on the Island of San Giorgio in Venice, within the grounds of the Fondazione Giorgio Cini, and was created as a tribute to the Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges, drawing on his story The Garden of Forking Paths. Designed by the English architect Randoll Coate, a specialist in labyrinth design, the garden is made up of thousands of box hedge plants arranged to form symbols dear to the writer: mirrors, hourglasses, a walking stick, a question mark, a tiger, alongside his name and his wife’s initials. For a decade the work could only be viewed from above, from the terrace of an adjacent building, which allowed visitors to take in its overall design without being able to walk through it. Only later was the path opened to direct visits, turning a purely visual experience into a physical, sensory one. Today the walk is accompanied by an original composition by Antonio Fresa, performed by the Orchestra of Teatro La Fenice, designed to heighten the site’s dreamlike character through a dedicated audio guide. The union of living architecture, literature and music makes the project a rare case of a space conceived not simply to be observed, but to be experienced according to each visitor’s own curiosity and pace.
Menu
