The prison transcends!

THE PRISON LIVES

The prison transcends – a place of hope

Overviews and overlaps

This section expresses the timeless and transcendental value the prison’s space evokes and personifies. The prison has a remarkable genius loci which increases the human need to take a break from life, ask questions, and recognize deeper contexts, the need for contact with something greater. Of course, even tragic history has contributed to this when the fact of being faced with often incomprehensible human suffering increases people’s need to find a deeper meaning to an event, a stable point of value. Even the layout of individual themes hides a certain spiritual dimension, as the very centre, the heart of the building contains a chapel. And the monasterial nature of the building, with individual cells (both prisons and monasteries have cells) surrounding the central sacred space, supports this theme. The experience of transcendence, the understanding of a deeper value, need not always be connected with a specific religious doctrine. It can also be an expression of creative wonder, the humility of an artist who knows that their abilities are a gift. So at a certain level, the prison’s position is not just tragic, but also contemplative, spiritual, and essentially cathartic. Even this position can contribute to a strengthening of the understanding of the prison as not just a place burdened by a tragic past, but also a place of hope, a meaningful creation based on an understanding of deeper values. Such a positive position is crucial for the prison to gain a new life.