What if Sisyphus would be happy?

Physical theatre represents for me an irreplaceable partner in the practice of a philosophy without words. Give body and anchor to fundamental issues to make them concrete in a universal way and accessible to all, regardless of social classes, educational levels, languages and cultures.
Contemporary times are witnessing the transition from a knowledge society to a society of "knowing that". The anecdote and the surface are fashionable. Knowledge accumulates but empties itself of its substance: it is no longer contained, but an object. Materialization, exteriorization, cosmetization, reification, flattening. Everything is smoothed. Thickness, roughness and roughness become rare. We lose the pleasure of the fold.
Knowing is feeling gravity, touching density, experiencing rigor and consistency, becoming lucid about the opacity of what surrounds us. The reality is rhizome, a network of exponential complexity. And the problem when we know is that we can no longer forget.

In a closed world, I find myself. But in front of an infinite world, I get lost. So we lock ourselves in. Yet, while it oppresses us, knowledge liberates us. How can we be emancipated when we are condemned to life? Albert Camus writes that Sisyphus' freedom of happiness lies in accepting his task.
Who is this Sisyphus?
In Greek mythology, Sisyphus was sentenced to life by the gods to push a stone up a mountain. Every time he reaches the top, the stone falls to the other side and then he has to start all over again. Western culture made him an antihero, inspiring fear and pity.
Albert Camus (1913-1960), French philosopher and writer, proposes another interpretation: he presents Sisyphus as the hero of the absurd. According to him, "we must imagine Sisyphus happy" to do his duty by continuing to live despite the absence of sense of the world.
Camus explains that it is when Sisyphus descends from the mountain in search of the stone that he is free to transform his punishment into victory through the total absence of hope (not despair), permanent reflection (not renunciation) and conscious dissatisfaction (not youth anxiety).
Margot Prod'hom

Credits:

External eyes: Paulina Alpen and Mats Süthoff
Technical support: Jeele Johannsen Lights: Christoph Siegenthaler

​