What if Sisyphus would be happy?

For me, physical theatre is an irreplaceable partner in the practice of a philosophy without words. It gives substance and grounding to fundamental questions, making them concrete in a universal way and accessible to all, regardless of social class, education level, language, or culture.

Contemporary times are witnessing the transition from a knowledge society to a "knowing that" society. Anecdotes and superficiality are in fashion. Knowledge accumulates but is emptied of its substance: it is no longer content, but object. Materialization, exteriorization, cosmeticization, reification, flattening. Everything is smoothed out. Thickness, roughness, and roughness become rare. We lose the pleasure of the fold.

To know is to feel gravity, to touch density, to experience rigor and consistency, to become lucid about the opacity of what surrounds us. Reality is a rhizome, a network of exponential complexity. And the problem with knowing is that we can no longer forget.

In a closed world, I find myself. But faced with an infinite world, I am lost. So we lock ourselves in. Yet, while it oppresses us, knowledge liberates us. How can one emancipate oneself when condemned to life? Albert Camus wrote that the freedom of Sisyphus's happiness lies in accepting his task.

Who is Sisyphus?

In Greek mythology, Sisyphus was condemned by the gods to push a stone up a mountain for life. Every time he reached the top, the stone fell down the other side, and he had to start all over again. Western culture has made him an antihero, inspiring both fear and pity.

Albert Camus (1913-1960), French philosopher and writer, offers another interpretation: he presents Sisyphus as the hero of the absurd. According to him, "we must imagine Sisyphus happy" in doing his duty and continuing to live despite the world's meaninglessness.

Camus explains that it is when Sisyphus descends the mountain in search of the stone that he is free to transform his punishment into victory through total hopelessness (not despair), permanent reflection (not renunciation), and conscious dissatisfaction (not youthful anxiety).

Margot Prod'hom

Credits:

External eyes: Paulina Alpen and Mats Süthoff

Technical Support: Jeele Johannsen
Lighting: Christoph Siegenthaler