Laberinto

Ana Maria Millan

Betonhalle

Sunday

13.09.2026

11:00-22:00

Betonhalle

Betonhalle

Laberinto by Ana María Millán is a video game, developed from a collective narrative built through role-playing sessions in Bogotá. The work unfolded between real and imaginary tunnels, connecting Bogotá’s underground myths with the communist resistance tunnels in Paris during World War II. Through this dual geography, Laberinto explored how the hidden layers of history—political, architectural, and emotional—emerge in the form of play, living archive, and speculative displacement.

The narrative unfolded in a Bogotá, where different time periods intersect. Unbuilt architectural projects—such as the Palace of Justice, designed in 1961 by the Cruz and Londoño firm based on blueprints by architect Antonio Miguel Alba, who was part of the firma—coexist with real locations like Colegio San Bartolomé, the Environmental Axis, the National University, and former urban canals. This modernist architecture—shaped by the era of Rojas Pinilla and the Cold War—is reactivated as the fictional setting of an alternate and critical history.

The video game’s characters were inspired by postwar television animations—German, Japanese, and American—reconfigured as avatars roaming through the tunnels of Bogotá and Paris. Some were active players; others residual or spectral figures. Their visual design evokes a global history of animation, such as propaganda, pedagogy, and affective archives.

The installation included a large-format screen displaying the video game and printed curtains featuring architectural landscapes from Bogotá—such as the bridge over the Environmental Axis, the Palace of Justice project, and the map of the Parisian tunnels used by the WWII Resistance (FFI), designed by Colonel Rol-Tanguy. The scenographic setting transformed the exhibition space into a liminal zone between the virtual and the physical, between image and body.

The game’s script was generated through in-person role-playing sessions. It was an open-ended narrative shaped by chance, interaction, and collaboration. There was no predetermined goal—only multiple possible routes, fragmentary quests, and unpredictable encounters. Thus, Laberinto became a space of speculative memory, inviting visitors into a non-linear story built from remnants, repetitions, urban secrets, and possible futures.

Elkin Rubiano

Credits:

Direction: Ana María Millán. Coparticipants juego de rol y guión: Oscar Zambrano, Carolina Pinzón, Tupac Cruz, Ana María Millán, José Sanín, Andres Sandoval Alba. 3D modeling, animation, and programming: Andres Sandoval Alba, Ana María Millán, Felipe Alfaro, Alejandro Cardona Aguilar. AI modeling:Li, Zhihao and Wang, Yufei and Zheng, Heliang and Luo, Yihao and Wen, Bihan. Choreography: Santiago Racines. Mocab: José David Zafra. Sound design: Jaime Carvajal.