NEON is proud to present a series of performances by internationally acclaimed Greek choreographer Dimitris Papaioannou at the former Public Tobacco Factory this December. Sisyphus / Trans / Form (2019) takes place as part of the exhibition Portals organised by NEON in collaboration with the Hellenic Parliament.

Sisyphus / Trans / Form (2019), a piece for six performers, is based on the myth of Sisyphus, condemned by the gods to roll a rock up to the top of a mountain which then rolls back down again so that he endlessly has to repeat the exercise.

At its heart, Sisyphus / Trans / Form is a meditation on the absurd; the realisation, described by French philosopher and author Albert Camus as arising from the confrontation between the human need for happiness and reason and ‘the unreasonable silence of the world’. As Papaioannou says, ‘making art is using your talent to meditate upon issues of human existence, whether pleasurable or not’.

Sisyphus’s perpetual tussle with the rock resembles the repetitive routine of working people, a tribute to Papaioannou’s own father who is a working class man, that results first in melancholy and then in metamorphosis. Rather than being an unbearable load, the daily grind – the rock – transforms into an awakening. As Camus wrote, ‘crushing truths perish from being acknowledged’.

The performance is presented at the Tobacco Factory basement which has been transformed specifically for the performances.