Dimitris Papaioannou: Sisyphus/Trans/Form

It’s one of the most potent of the Greek myths – and perhaps the one we find hardest to shake from our minds.  

The image of poor old Sisyphus the trickster, whose eternal punishment for trying to cheat Death is to push a boulder all the way up a mountain, only to have it fall back down the bottom. Same days just feel like that, don’t they? Is it too much of a stretch to say that this blasted pandemic has a whiff of the Sisyphean burden about it as well?

Who better to re-frame this enduring legend than Dimitris Papaioannou, the great experimental Greek stage director, choreographer and visual artist who wowed the world with his Athens 2004 Olympic Games opening ceremony. 

As the high-profile Portals exhibition moves into its last month at the Old Tobacco Factory, Papaioannou brings his electric production to this rebooted Athenian landmark for four days, with the help of the NEON art foundation.

Six performers take part in Sisyphus/Trans/Form, billed by NEON as 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. 

The free performance will be presented at the Tobacco Factory basement which has been transformed specifically for the event.

A couple of things you should probably know first: there is no assigned seating and the audience is asked to walk alongside the performance. There's also nudity involved so the show is better suited to those 15 years and older. Covid restrictions apply so best check the official event listing below in advance too.