Sergey Solov'yov - the author of last architectural project of XX century. Around the year 2003 one of northern seaside cities in Germany to the World's park culture department will display a great labyrinth based upon his drawings and figures, serving as a monument to human consciousness as it has become in third millennium.

"I thought of the labyrinth of labyrinths,
of a winding and ever-expanding labyrinth,
which would capture both the past and the future
and by some miracle embody the universe in its entirety...
Having lost all grasp of time,
I have experienced myself the very
consciousness of the world".

Borkhes

It all began at a height of 10,000 meters. The year was 1996. I was flying from Kiev to New York under the invitation of a fund dedicated to promoting an annual get-together of artistic people. The majority goes to Americans, but in order to ward off boredom, one percent goes to Europeans. I looked at this way; the world was a spinning roulette-wheel, with organizers poking their fingers at it. My uniqueness came in the fact that I was the first to approach them from Eastern Curtain. This must be the case, and that is why they met me as they did…

I was handed three keys from three temples with the following explanation - one for daily life, another for literary and scientific occupation, and the final for painting. In truth, with a Russian poet, one cannot get by with a single temple - he also draws and builds spacecrafts. That is why I fell into it at three blossoming places, almost in a complete solitude, drawing on sand, as Archimed, conceptual drawings of the future building.

At that time I didn't know that my adventure with labyrinth would have been stretched out for three years, that I would have six uncompleted versions, and that the opportunity to erect it would arise quite unexpected, at a time when I had given up all hope.

I understood from the very beginning, that it should be not a monument or museum, but an interactive space where the visitor would be provoked to get involved in and to interact. Just as always transpires with man in his wanderings trough time. That is, there should take place an essentially endless process that transforms participant. And thus - a labyrinth, the walking along in never is known beforehand. In the performing an act, either by a person or people, Time is created for them. What, to this person, is Time? This is the question that is answered by the final path of every visitor. And this version of Time should remain, in some way, imprinted eternally in the labyrinth. In this, my understanding of the labyrinth actually came to me before the word "labyrinth" itself.

I so strongly accepted my conclusion that the labyrinth had to be built in real space, and to do otherwise would be meaningless, that I almost aggressively received suggestions of any non-architectural realizations.

For example, film director Peter Grinuey, who was very interested in my project, and perhaps the project became very close to him, suggested to show a journey of cinema through the labyrinth of Time.

Another time Russian writer Andrey Bitov asked me: "Why do you need this whole construction, you have your own material and your instruments - You are a poet. It's best for you to write a book". In one year I actually collected and released the book, and it is thus titled - "Book". Within the book I put my drawings and figures. And the text - partly symbolical commentary and parallels to them - there various independent plots can spring up. It is a literary, verbal labyrinth.

For me language and words always carried great meaning. In the first version of the project I wanted to build a city from transparent letters, among which the visitor would wander. Letters develop in a word "TIME" written in seven basic languages. Then the image of the snake biting its tail came to me, or a circle, which is the same. This should be the view of the outside of the building. Actually, as a result, several figure eights came off: the snake was alive unto itself - it shuddered, turned and trembled. The snake was the heart, the purpose, and, in it there's limit of the labyrinth - it is still necessary to enter it, and in doing so, to overcome trials. The feature of my plan - the purpose itself usually is hidden. And yet it is visible for external view for those outside viewer and passer by. It draws people to itself, yet how to enter remains unknown.

The way for the guest-hero develops through overcoming obstacles. To prevail over the monster (and for me, the monster is a struggle of choices, of decisions) - is the condition that you manage to emerge in the top lighted circle. Before you, visitor, there are three doors. The choice of doors, to a certain extent, predetermines future movements. So, going this way until the next choice structure.

Into the underwater-underground portion of the labyrinth there are three entrances - on the sides are lakes - just as on the sides of the earth. Below the space is divided into two zones. One - peripheral, black and white. You can only make searches here and explore. You have no instructions and no map. There are no other adventures awaiting you here. Thanks to indicators pointing to exit you can easily find the way. Should one desire to leave the game, you can at any moment, as arrows continuously point the way to the exit.

The transition to the central zone is as if going from black and white cinema to color. In the plan it appears as a refined monogram divided into four sectors, into four elements. If you enter the element of fire, you are faced with fiery provocations, and if in the sector of water, then the theme continues.

For example, suddenly the path closes on you, and before you - a mirror. And besides it lies a hammer. To continue on the trial you, you must shatter your own image. This is in the sector of water. But in the general description, I only included patterns of such playful situations. I can never think for Chinese or for Ecuadorians. But I wanted my realization of the labyrinth with joint operations. The general plan of my labyrinth is about to be presented on the Internet is open for offers. Whether you like it or not, your national and cultural identity will be reflected in the invented plots through out the labyrinth.

The same is true in the reception, which I have titled "the telephone". Every visitor receives a ring - a coiled up snake. And at the choice structures, there is a microphone on the wall, and, with the help of the snake you can record your voice for up to thirty seconds, but only ones. You can leave a coherent phrase or a sound, even a kiss. Your voice is now broadcast and remains there forever. It also depends on you whether it would exist further. You can also remove a voice: to bring it forward, to muffle and so on. For the first visitor to the vault, all is silent. Then, with subsequent visits, it is gradually sounded. Just imagine it ten years later. For me, this varying development fugue gradually builds a voice monument to mankind.

But then, if you step on any key plate, a pass opens. A spiral staircase from there gets into the top of the circle, to the body of the snake - an endlessly circular corridor. It is filled with figures representing images of time in all ethnicities of the world (it seems there are about two hundred and fifty). This is how this is accomplished. By toss to each ethnicity is allocated a space in the corridor. A selected artist, either a sculptor or a writer, represents the ethnicity. Thus the any object is creating. Whether you consider it as such or not, the cultural context of the viewer will necessary embody the figure in view.

Nearing the end of the corridor, the visitor has the opportunity to type the number of a figure, which internally appealed to him. Here he is guided solely by subjective feelings. Then the voice of the selected figure is heard in half tone. For the first visitor, all voices sound the same way - monotone. This means that you again redistribute voices, rebuild their modern chart, - but this time it is voices from the past. You recreate the past in your own image and likeness, just as always happens through out the history of man.

I said, "almost at the end of the corridor", because it truly is endless in the purest sence: its end is not reachable, though it can be seen and draws the visitor toward it. It is impassable at the point where the head and tail of the snake converge. The mirror blade, like the wheel of steamship, rotates drawing up your reflection. The pendulum is swinging. All this seems hidden, and then appears behind smoke and light effects. It seems to offer you to enter, but then it is as if you could not possibly do so. That is, you can never take the final step. Here is the secret, the beginning of time and the end of perception.

In Rostock, I was part of the staff for the future exhibition. It was made about a huge steamship, which was sold by the German government for a symbolic price of one mark. They led me to the captain's bridge. There was the mouth of a huge river, and under it, the underground way is already dug out. It is a magnificent desert banks. They asked me where I would like to arrange the labyrinth. Certainly, I, or my labyrinth, lucked out. The International exhibition of park culture for the first time passes to East Germany, and they have conceived something grandiose. It was something truly unknown in their center - neither in Hanover, nor in Munich. By chance I found a place I was pleased with. However, the steamship slightly blocked the view. "We'll move it" - was the answer. It was as though the dream was coming true. Leaving, we asked that, in your view, how much should this cost? "We aren't concerned with such things". Was the answer. It must be determined by experts first, that such a project was possible.