Translated “The Prince with Donkey ears” is a tale about a Prince that was given donkey years at his birth by a very wise fairy after two other ones turn him into the most beautiful and smart prince in the World.
As he grew up his ears grew bigger and bigger so the King an Queen decided to cover them with a custom made hat. Unaware of his deformity, the prince became arrogant as his courtiers praised him as the most handsome and smart boy in the kingdom.
He soon turned into a young boy and his beard started growing so he had to go to the Barber.
Having to take the Prince’s hat to do his beard, the Barber reacted horrified with his donkey ears and the Prince started crying. The King came to see what was going on and threatened to hang the Barber if he didn’t keep it as a secret.
From that day the Prince became depressive and the Barber that was once very talkative became very quiet because the secret was a heavy burden for him, so he went to confess to a Priest. The Priest advised him to go up the hill dig a hole, say his secret inside as many times as necessary and cover it back with dirt and so he did.
In the meanwhile a canebrake grew in the place the Barber buried his secret and one day a pastor passed by and decided to build a flute with one of the canes. As he blew the flute, it start singing “the Prince has donkey ears, the Prince has donkey ears”, soon the news spread and the Pastor was summoned to perform at the court. Since there was only one prince in the kingdom, everybody turned their heads to him as the Pastor started playing.
With tears in his eyes the Prince said “yes, I am the Prince with donkey year, forgive me for being arrogant and mocking about your faults” and as he was taking out his hat the wise fairy appeared and took his donkey ears back since he had learned his lesson.
Secrets are one of the reasons that make us perceive humankind as a group of individual humans instead of a social superorganism. Secrets often divide us, sometimes consume us.
Having this Tale as starting point, I plan to create an installation constituted by two main symbolic elements. A hole to bury the secret and a flute to bring them to public somehow distorted in order to assure privacy and therefore provide a way to easily dispose the burden of a secret without any fear of social annihilation.
Potential implementations:
