PRODUCTION: FEIERABEND
"Gernot Candolini – Mystery Maze"

Prod.Nr.: 2010/F8V/206

Broadcast Date: 24/05/2010

COMMENT LIST:



00:00 Signation

00:22-00:57 Original German: Gernot Candolini
00:24-00:54 English

I’ve changed my career several times in my life, even though it hasn’t been easy. Life so often presents two forces; one pulling you towards what you want, the other towards what your heart knows will really nourish your soul.  If you have the image of the labyrinth in your mind, again and again you can find the courage and confidence to pursue new and unusual paths.

00:57 Title: "Mystery Maze"

01:09-01:37 VO
Gernot Candolini is a photographer, biologist, educator, and Labyrinth maker. A few years ago, he travelled across Europe photographing labyrinth installations in gardens, monasteries and churches. The resulting book has inspired the sextons of the church in the Upper Austrian town of Hofkirchen to join in the labyrinth community. Since then, two labyrinths have been created here, and a third is currently being built.

01:42 OT Gernot Candolini (English start at 01:43)

It looks so beautiful, with this cross shape.

01:49-01:55 VO
The labyrinth is one of the oldest symbols of humankind and is a primal image of life as a mirror to the soul.


01: 58 OT Gernot Candolini / Labyrinth designer

02:01-02:24 English time
Symbols are defined, to an extent, by the fact that they cannot be explained to the last. Though we can’t know exactly what they mean, we can touch upon something. Something talks to us. In our time there is a great need to discuss our physical and emotional state, and not only talk about what we can definitely know.

02:32-02:44 VO
As well as the labyrinth of Contemplation and the one of Meeting, now a labyrinth of Conversion is being built in the village square. The sculptor Gerhard Wünsche has been commissioned to make these stone figures.

02:48 OT Gernot Candolini

02:49-02:52 English
How did you arrive at three women giving birth?

02:54-03:05 OT Gerhard Wünsche / sculptor

02:56-03:04 English
I thought, everything begins from a centre, life itself for example – so I thought of women in childbirth.

03:31 VO
Gernot Candolini advises the people of Hofkirchnen in his capacity as a Labyrinth maker.

03:40 OT Gernot Candolini

03:42-04:03 English
This is a gothic Labyrinth. The Benedictines developed this design; it was used in various cathedrals throughout the 12th Century. There is one in Cologne Cathedral, though it was only built in 1976. The shape of this maze here has been specially altered and blown up to fit with the outside installations.

04:08-04:16 VO
Walking through the labyrinth has become an important spiritual exercise for the Benedictines in the abbey at Seitenstetten.

04:18 OT Berthold Heigl / Abt, Seitenstetten

04:19-04:47 English
I take this way while meditating. It is a path to the centre, not only of the labyrinth, but also to one’s own centre. In the middle is the flower of life – Sunday, which signifies life, resurrection, and, from the Christian perspective, the way to Christ. Sometimes you’re closer to the centre, and sometimes more peripheral. In that case we must go back to the beginning and start again.

04:57 OT Gernot Candolini

04:59-05:26 English
There are several legends about mazes, one of the best known is the story of Theseus and the Minotaur. The story goes that he found his way out with the help of the thread Ariadne gave him. Perhaps it was not so important for him to find his way in since it was light. Sometimes in the maze you have to stop because finding the way seems too difficult, but Theseus had the thread of Ariadne to guide him.

05: 39 OT Gernot Candolini
05:40-05:49 English

Theseus also danced with Ariadne in the maze. So the labyrinth can be a place to fight monsters, but also a place to celebrate.

05:56-06:31 OT Gernot Candolini

05:59-06:26 English
My partner told me in a maze of candles that we had a second child on the way. It was unclear whether the child would be born healthy, so I often went to pray in a Labyrinth for the baby and to speak from the heart of my worries about her health. After Paula was born, I ran round a maze out of sheer joy that everything went well.

06:36 OT Claudia Woldan / musician

06:37-06:38 English
I've learned that it is not tragic, if things aren’t resolved immediately, that sometimes it just takes time, and this time to develop can be a positive thing.

06:58-07:28 OT Gernot Candolini

07:00:07:24 English
The labyrinth itself is not really spiritual, man is spiritual. But the labyrinth can create a place where man can commune with himself, and feel his own spirituality, and can reflect on this contact. Faith can deepen by walking in a maze, too. Just as it might intensify on a pilgrimage.

07:32 OT Community (singing- no need to voice in English?)
Shadow and light, everything is near, fear not. Changing colour, shadow and light, everything is near, fear not.

07:45 Final Roller