RIHA Journal 0032 | 15 November 2011 Labyrinth – fragments Robert Morris and his installation for ms² Łódź 2010 Maria Hussako ska!"#yszko $eer re%ie and editing organized by& Międzynarodowe Cen rum !ul ury" !ra#$w % In erna ional Cul ural Cen re" !rakow Re%ie ers& Monika Rydi&er" Andrze' (zczer*#i 'bstra(t The installation by Robert Morris called Labyrinth, accompanying his monographic exhibition at the Museum of Art in Łódź, was one of his numerous works based on this theme !esides the labyrinth itself, which belongs to forms most pregnant with meanings, at least two issues seem intriguing The first is the dialogue of Minimalism with art of all eras, of which Morris is a brilliant exponent The other issue is connected to the concept of site"specific art, de#eloped by him in the $%&'s and assuming a comprehensi#e analysis of a place, its history, its social, cultural and political en#ironment, which (ustifies and anchors the work The Łódź context forced the artist to change his strategy, but the work based on the )#ery rare in art history* pattern of a triangular labyrinth may be interpreted as an important element of Morris's Threading through a labyrinth Tracing the changes in the Minimalist discourse of the recent decades I focus on a few interpretati#e lines, connected with the functioning of the -labyrinth- as a structure, I find some analogies between pattern repetitions by writers from the .ulipo group and the acti#ities of Robert Morris. + , + , + , + , + /$0 I #isited 1ucca last summer for the second time, reminding myself of this incredible city+s walls structure and the people who had disappeared inside 2 a little bit like Italo 3al#ino+s characters. Day after day the labyrinth of streets seemed to be getting more and more familiar 1ucca, a medie#al town with Roman roots, can be percei#ed as a kind of labyrinth5 the arena, now piaz6a, as the labyrinth+s centre, and the town walls as the first path It is incredible, but the walls are still fully intact today )as the walls lost their military importance, they became a pedestrian promenade which encircled the old town, although they were used for a number of years in the 7'th century for racing cars) $ 8alking the path on top of the town walls you can take a good look at the city and its maze"like structure During the walk the streets seen from abo#e re#eal a more complicated street layout, a second maze with another centre becomes #isible 8alking there, , begun to think about another labyrinth, prepared by Robert Morris for his exhibition Notes on Sculpture at the exhibition space ms7 of the Museum of Art in Łódź7 some months earlier, realised in 9une 7'$' Asked on the opening night to take part in the session and panel discussion connected with the show+s finisage, I did not choose the sub(ect for my paper until a sunny afternoon in 1ucca, where I decided to concentrate in $ http:;;www luccaterre it;index php<lang=enrris )access: % >o# 7'$$* 7 Robert Morris – Notes on Sculpture. Objects, Installations, Fil s, Museum of Art in Łódź, ms7, 7?th 9une"7?th .ctober 7'$', curated by @uzanne Tit6, 3lemens Arümmel, Aatar6yna @Coboda, co" production Museum Abteiberg, MDnchengladbach. This text is provided under the terms of the Creative Commons License CC-BY+NC-ND 3.06 RIHA Journal 0032 | 15 November 2011 my paper on mazes, and on knowing how to make the most of e#ery opportunity It is presumably not by chance that I had chosen 1ucca for a short #acation 1 Lucca seen with Calvino on my mind (photograph provided by the author) /70 The feeling of mysterious unease came before the labyrinth .n @t Martin+s cathedral façade The 1ucca 3athedral dates from the &th century, but little remains of this phase of the church The cathedral acquired its present appearance after inter#entions in the $7th century, which were completed in $7'?, adding the portico to the façade, with three large arches and the -loggias" with multiform columns. The sculptures of the left portal are the work of >icola Gisano )today a copy is displayed*, but a no less attracti#e element of the façade is a labyrinth on the right marble panel inside the right loggia of the portico, on the outermost pillar, which is characteristically two"coloured )fig 7* The portico is constructed according to laws no less rigorous than those for building a medie#al church The space inside the portico used to ha#e its own hierarchies. >ow its rhetoric collapsed, for us first of all it is a place between the sacred and the profane The intaglio placed on the side wall on the #iewer+s eyes height seemed to ask to be touched Most church #isitors put their hands on the cold, worn marble H to communicate with the +ages', history+s infinity, in a simple gesture of repetition A longer examination, if it is possible in a crowded tourist city,I could gi#e an impression of undifferentiated potency It could I The discourse on tourism, both academic and lay, consists in the criticism of tourism as an inauthentic acti#ity !oth the tourist and a more heroic figure contrasting with him, namely a tra#eller in search for culturally authentic #alues, used to fall into a trap 9onathan 3uller explained the paradox: The parado!, the dile a o" authenticity, is that to be e!perienced as authentic it ust be ar#ed as authentic, but $hen it is ar#ed as authentic it is ediated, a sign o" itsel" and hence not authentic in the sense o" unspoiled )9onathan 3uller, -The @emiotics of Tourism,- in: Framing the Sign. %riticis and its Institutions, The 9ohns Jopkins Kni#ersity Gress, .xford $%LL, $&?* ,n his brilliant essay, 3uller explored not only the processes of seeing e#ery detail of a cultural monument, but also touching ob(ects as crucial for the experience This text is provided under the terms of the Creative Commons License CC-BY+NC-ND 3.06 RIHA Journal 0032 | 15 November 2011 e#en re#eal that the maze, with its twel#e paths, could be classified as a 3hartres type Mery few people try to read the ancient description on the right side of the diagram ? 2 Labyrinth on the portico o1 St. Martin's Cathedral in Lucca (photograph provided by the author) /I0 It is presumably not by chance that #irtually all Nrench labyrinths ha#e $7 concentric circles, possibly alluding to the 6odiac )within those constraints the world only seems to be confusingly labyrinthine*, like in Ga#ia and 3ologne O The attempt to reconstruct 3al#ino+s unreconstructable tracery of patterns gi#es rise to a number of Fuestions. @ometimes you can percei#e a town as #ery close to an impermanent structure of a polyphonic playground or labyrinth, condensation of any space, a#ailable and forbidden 3al#ino H absent and present H with his catalogue of issues could guide us, but instead he has proposed a dilemma: 8hat if e#eryone waits for something to happen< 8hat if e#eryone waits for someone to take o#er< ? A labyrinth at Lucca 3athedral showed Theseus and Minotaur at the center5 the inscription stated that no one could lea#e the labyrinth except Theseus with Ariadne+s aid Though not explicitly 3hristian, in an ecclesiastical context this inscription could well suggest 3hristian truth foreshadowed by pagan myth )Genelope Reed 4oob, The Idea o" the Labyrinth, "ro %lassical &nti'uity through the Middle &ges, 3ornell Kni#ersity Gress, ,thaca and 1ondon $%%7, $7P"$7L*: J,3 QKEM 3RET,3K@ R4,T 4R4A1K@ R@T 1A!ER,>TJK@ 4E QK. >K11K@ MA4ERE QK,M,T QK, NK,T ,>TK@ >, TJR@RK@ SRAT,@ A4R,A>AE /sic<0 @TAM,>E 9KTK@, as my friend"librarian Aleksander @iemas6ko found that description at Gaolo @antarcangeli, (si)ga labiryntu, 8ars6awa $%L7, 7P7 ),talian original: Gaolo @antarcangeli, Il libro dei labirinti, Mallecchi, Nlorence $%&P5 a new edition is a#ailable online at http:;;www scribd com;doc;O7%7'?&L;Gaolo"@antarcangeli",l" libro"dei"labirinti"7''O, access: % >o# 7'$$* O Genelope Reed 4oob identified the reasons for placing labyrinths in medie#al churches as a sign of the enclosing cathedral+s magnificence and the architects genius, and as a sign of hell made extricable through the labors and unicoursal footsteps of 3hrist H Theseus H a sign of redemption as well as a warning of those who will not follow 3hristian doctrine )Reed 4oob, The Idea, $7L* The connection between Lucca, Ga#ia and Giacenza labyrinths was researched by Jermann Aern in his book Labyrinthe. Erscheinungs"or en und +eutungen: -... /ahre 0egenwart eines 1rbilds, Grestel, München $%L7, 7I'"7I? This text is provided under the terms of the Creative Commons License CC-BY+NC-ND 3.06 RIHA Journal 0032 | 15 November 2011 8hat if the system ; boss takes o#er< 8hat if the boss has left for an eternal holiday< 8hat if we no longer know what goes on< 8hat if life (ust sucks and stinks to hell< /?0 8atching 1ucca's treasures ob#iously ga#e me no answers to 3al#ino+s dilemma, but ga#e me, as a tra#eller, some clues to understanding a medie#al labyrinth as a significant form H still acti#e e#en in its tourist edition5 it also suggested to me the concept of a city as a metaphorical labyrinth !oth as it is understood in modern and postmodern times, it reminds us that as uch recent visual art and theory has underlined, the artist 3as the "irst vie$er o" the $or#4 and subse'uent vie$ers 5 interpreters are caught up $ithin the co ple! "raught operation o" representation – entangled in intersubjective spaces o" desire, projection, and identi"ication.