Map 8 – A Leeds Labyrinth

Mapping the city in the Central Library

What lies at the heart of the city of Leeds? A Labyrinth full of stories – stories of the past, the present and the future.

This project is all about making maps – maps of the city created by and with some the people who live here. Over the course of the first year, we worked with around 300 people from a wide variety of different backgrounds and cultures, all of whom are individuals with their own unique perspectives on the city.

At the end of this period, the maps became part of an installation, which took the form of a labyrinth – a mysterious structure that stood in the heart of Leeds’ Central Library. The labyrinth was open to the public during the library’s normal opening hours and offered people a chance to explore the city by encountering a series of glimpses and snapshots of the work that people had made. In a sense, the labyrinth became a map of 365 Leeds Stories project – an interactive map that people could step into and explore. We worked on the construction of the labyrinth with designer Kelly Jago and scenic constructor Gideon Woods, as well as all the artists with whom we collaborated over the course of the project.

The labyrinth was open from Sunday the 4th to Thursday the 22nd of May 2014. There are some photos of the exhibition below. We also made a radio programme about the project with our friend Peter Spafford at Chapel FM. You can listen to this here. It is an hour long so you may just want to dip in and out.

Photos by Lizzie Coombes