Now You Can Go to Jail Before Entering City Hall, For Art

Normally, people wouldn't choose to go to jail, especially before being proven guilty, but this 40-by-40-foot prison in front of City Hall has attracted Philadelphia residents to journey through the chain link fence maze in order to imagine what it's like behind bars. Los Angeles-based multimedia artist Sam Durant created the installation, called "Labyrinth," for the city's Open Source festival. The public will be able to interact with the installation by hanging personal items on the structure. According to festival organizers, "The maze functions as a double metaphor, symbolizing not only the struggle of criminals caught in the Department of Corrections but for how, as a society, we are all navigating the labyrinth of mass incarceration." CityLab reported that Durant has worked with inmates at Pennsylvania's Graterford State Correctional Institution and released prisoners at the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program's apprenticeship initiative. His work has been featured in exhibitions all over the world from Los Angeles to New Zealand to Dusseldorf.