When the Greek hero Theseus entered the labyrinth in Crete to slay the Minotaur imprisoned within its intricate network of passages, he unspooled a trail of thread as he went so he would be able to find his way out again.

You won’t have to worry about that in the labyrinth to be constructed Saturday at the Chapel Hill Community Center park at 120 S. Estes Drive. That one, like most actual labyrinths, will be impossible to get lost in.

“A lot of people think a labyrinth is the same as a maze,” said artist Bryant Holsenbeck, who will direct the project. “But it’s different than a maze. In a maze you get lost. In a labyrinth, you follow one path to the center and back out again.”

The event on Saturday — “Elements: A Labyrinth” — will kick off the Chapel Hill Public Art Commission’s 2008 Community Art Project. As always, the project involves inviting the public to submit original works of art based on a broad theme — this year, the theme is “Elements” — to be displayed at sites throughout town.

This year the public also is invited to come out Saturday and help build the labyrinth, which will be made using privet and other invasive plants that the Friends of Bolin Creek pulled up during the most recent of their monthly invasive removal expeditions along the creek. The project will take place from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Holsenbeck will direct traffic, but everyone who shows up with get to have a hand in the laying out of the walls and paths. All ages are welcome. Wear long sleeves and bring work gloves and, if you have them, loppers or gardening shears.

“The Friends of Bolin Creek go out the third Saturday of every month and take out invasive species,” Holsenbeck said. “I went with them on the last one. We pulled a lot of privet, two or three truckloads. So we have these big mounds of dead and dry privet that will eventually be composted. That’s what we’ll use to make the labyrinth.”

A labyrinth, unlike a maze, has no blind alleys, dead ends or wrong turns. Although it twists and turns back on itself, a labyrinth has just a single path, which leads from the entrance to the center in winding patterns of concentric circles. The pattern is common throughout the world, from Hopi basketry to Celtic art. In the Middle Ages, many cathedrals and churches had labyrinths embedded in their floors.

Walking a labyrinth, you move from the outer ring into the center and back again, and it’s a journey that is intended to be metaphoric as well as actual. Labyrinths are designed to encourage a calm and reflective state of mind; following the winding path is intended to promote relaxation and meditation.

Holsenbeck specializes in community art projects and in creating artworks and installations using objects that ordinarily get thrown away — things like bottle caps, old credit cards, disposable chopsticks.

For this labyrinth, in a bit of a twist, she will use natural material that would ordinarily be disposed of. She has created several labyrinths over the years, using items ranging from from shoes to saplings.

“When they invited me to do a project, at first I didn’t know what I wanted to do,” she said. “Then I saw the space, and it’s this flat area that you can look down on from this sort of berm above it. And I thought, well, a labyrinth would go great right there. You’ll be able to look at it from above and see the pattern, and I like art that you can walk around in.”

For information see www.communityartproject.org or call 968-2749.

2008 Community Art Project

The Chapel Hill Public Arts Commission invites the public to submit artworks for the 2008 Community Art Project. The theme is Elements.”

Guidelines: Submissions must be wired to hang on the wall and should be no larger than 24 inches wide by 36 inches tall.

Delivery: Deliver submissions to The Chapel Hill Museum, 523 E. Franklin St., on April 4 or April 5 between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Deliver artwork with an entry form and statement card filled out.

Reception: An opening reception will be held April 17 at 6 p.m. at the Open Eye Café, 100 S. Greensboro St., Carrboro.

Exhibition: Artwork will be displayed at various sites from April 17 through May 28.

For information see www.communityartproject.org or contact The Chapel Hill Public Arts Commission at 968-2749 or info@chapelhillarts.org.