Jeff SawardLABYRINTH

/ THE WORK

LABYRINTH, 2007
glassbricks

The labyrinth as a symbol of human existence has existed for millennia in many cultures around the world. In Italy, labyrinths have been found engraved on rock, painted on Etruscan vases, or in the form of mosaics on Roman floors. Sometimes they are also present in religious contexts such as in the Cathedral of Lucca or the Basilica of Pavia. In contemporary art the motif initially appears during the 1960s with the work of Brian O’Doherty and Tony Smith in the United States. In Tuscany, the American artist Robert Morris created a triangular labyrinth in 1980 at Villa Celle (Pistoia), while in Seggiano (Grosseto), in Spoerri’s garden, a labyrinth was installed which derives from a pre-Columbian rock engraving. The one in the Park, created by Saward in 2007, also derives from a rock engraving, discovered in Valcamonica and dated to the Iron Age (750-500 BC).

Positioned on the left side of the second part of the route, thanks to its imposing geometric shape and its bright green color that shimmers in the sunlight, the labyrinth creates a visual impact even from afar. Octagonal, made with square colored glass tiles, produced in Florence, the Labyrinth is seventy-five meters long; a series of concentric paths leads to a small central, empty space, which houses an orange seat and a mirror. The visitor faces nothing other than himself.