Photo: Eric Cabanis/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Looming over mere mortals, a Minotaur strode through the streets of Toulouse, France, for an immersive art exhibition in November.
There are days I think that artists will save the world.
We have too many real-life monstrosities weighing us down. If we make the mistake of watching the news before bedtime, evil forces get into our dreams. Along with the demons comes a sense of helplessness — a feeling we ought to do something about this, but we don’t know what.
But fantasy monsters? Oh, yes, please! The more wildly imaginative artists we have, the more fantasy monsters, the better for me. I would absolutely love to look out the window one morning and see a giant mechanical spider. I would also love the feeling that I’m not responsible to do anything about it.
Alissa J. Rubin writes at the New York Times, “Imagine looking out the window one morning and seeing a gigantic spider perched on the roof of a neighboring building — its eight legs extending to the street below. Then you walk downtown and realize that a 50-foot-tall creature with the head of a bull and the body of a man was looming above you.”
In November, the French city of Toulouse gave “itself over to an immersive form of street theater, bringing to life creatures like the giant spider and the Minotaur, the mythical monster from Greek mythology that is half bull and half man and said to have lived in the center of a maze on the island of Crete.
“Both creatures are the conception of François Delarozière, the artistic director and leading creative force behind La Machine, a theater company that works with technicians and designers to fabricate mechanical creatures on a vast scale and creates public spectacles around them. …
“Mr. Delarozière described his goal to local news outlets as making the city and its residents all part of a vast work of art by giving them a common topic to react to so that they would ‘talk to each other’ and ‘the whole city becomes a place of theater.’ …
“The Minotaur is made of unpainted lime tree wood and metal. It has been constructed to seem as real as possible and even makes the sound of breathing as it moves.
“Apparently ‘asleep,’ he was pulled along by some of the 16 technicians who coordinate his movement, his peaceful but powerful breathing heard above the crowd’s chatter. His arrival, which constituted Act I of the drama, was accompanied by a cast of scores of actors, opera singers and musicians.
“On Friday morning came Act II. Toulouse residents and visitors found him the following morning still asleep in the middle of one of the main squares. But he soon roused and began to move through the streets.
“By evening, the spider, named Ariane, was awake as well, and was poised on the top of the Hotel Dieu.”
More at the New York Times, here.
Wow! And, yes, that’s an interesting distinction–monsters that we know are harmless and for which we bear no responsibility–the best monsters.
I’ve never seen a giant spider out my window, but a neighbor once saw a little wizened face watching her get dressed. Once she recovered from her shock, she discovered that someone’s pet monkey had run away from home.