His biographers say that Timothy Walter Burton was an introverted teenager and, like the great Orson Welles, a lover of dramatic representations, as well as a passionate about everything related to the fantastic, more inclined, however, to let himself be carried away. by the dark whims of what George Lucas would incorporate in his famous Star Wars saga, as the dark side of the Force.
Saga, by the way, that apart from the succulent special effects that still continue to capture the fascination of the spectator, contains, in its essence, a good part of those enriching latent postulates in the extraordinary psychological work of C.G. Jung, aimed, of course, at the always controversial and difficult undertaking, which involves something as paradoxical as the reconciliation of opposites.
Possibly, based on this, it can be a wasteful exercise, to walk through part of the immeasurable satellites that make up the Burton Universe and not be influenced by that cryptic arrangement of confronting archetypes, the reconciliation of which depends, to a large extent, on the personal impressions of the user. spectator and how he, turned into an unexpected arbitrator, allows himself to be seduced by the influence of some characters and some situations, which determine which way the balance of his preferences leans.
It is not surprising, therefore, that from a cultural perspective, together with the expectation that a city like Madrid can cause in the leisure expectations of its visitors, the exhibition also constitutes a benchmark, also focusing on that aspect. , complex and multidimensional, the Labyrinth, passing through another related archetype, the Door, which transmits both uncertainty and expectation, until reaching that primordial center, whose beast, the famous Minotaur, becomes evident in the assessment that is personally granted to the lived experience.
This begins in a common room and obligatory for everyone, from the side an indeterminate number of doors, which are, metaphorically and comparatively speaking, the corridors of the labyrinth, whose adventure is invited to carry out and from this moment on, it is the spectator himself is left at the mercy of his instinct, chance or destiny, since it is precisely he who determines from this moment on through which door to continue his journey, struggling with the surprise that awaits him on the other side of the threshold.
The journey, of course, is only forward: once chosen and the door opened, there is no going back: as in Homer's Odyssey, the viewer becomes an improvised Ulysses, ignorant, at all times, of luck that awaits you behind each of the fifteen doors that you have to go through and that will take you to fifteen different settings, characterized by the environments and characters of Burton's films.
A pleasant and unexpected challenge, which I recommend not only to movie lovers in general and Tim Burton films in particular, but also to all travelers who want to enjoy their visit to a multicultural city like Madrid as much as possible.
The Labyrinth Exhibition, by Tim Burton, located in the Espacio Iber Caja de Delicias, has been extended until January 15, 2023.
NOTICE: Both the text and the photographs that accompany it are my exclusive intellectual property and, therefore, are subject to my Copyright.
