Sisyphus / Trans / Form

Dimitris Papaioannou

October 24 – 27, 2019

Presented as part of Festival Aperto 2019, Sisyphus / Trans / Form is the exclusive Italian debut of a new project that Greek choreographer Dimitris Papaioannou has created for Collezione Maramotti, a private contemporary art collection open to the public since 2007 and housed in the former Max Mara corporate headquarters, a brutalist building from the 1950s. Papaioannou’s site-specific piece will be performed from 24 to 27 October (6 performances) in the Collezione Maramotti spaces.

This marks the sixth initiative in a decade-long collaboration among Collezione Maramotti, Max Mara and Fondazione I Teatri, after performances by the Trisha Brown Dance Company (2009), Shen Wei Dance Arts (2011), Wayne McGregor | Random Dance (2013), Hofesh Shechter/Shechter Junior (2015) and Saburo Teshigawara_KARAS (2017). Invitations to choreographers of international renown to conceive and present dance performances in a place dedicated to contemporary art arises from the wish of fostering a close and exciting dialogue between the world of dance and the visual arts. This collaboration includes the presentation of the new production by Papaioannou the for Aperto Festival 2020: an international project which will see I Teatri as co-producers, supported by Max Mara.

In Sisyphus / Trans / Form, the dancers’ bodies are in perfect equilibrium yet seem broken, moving through an installation where they create optical illusions, inspired by the myth of Sisyphus, that shed a subtle light on the human quest for meaning. It is a piece that explores our relationship with the material world, a form of engagement that can help us rise above it. Papaioannou has conceived this performance as an attempt to generate meditative energy through simple actions, prompting an emotional journey through illusion.

Dimitris Papaioannou’s original training was in the visual arts, and he worked in painting and comics before turning his attention to performance as a choreographer, director, dancer, and set and costume designer. His powerfully original, visionary language does away with the traditional boundaries between dance, painting and sculpture. The performers’ bodies, as they constantly interacting with props and raw materials, split apart and regroup in deft compositions that echo classical myth and universal narratives. The lyrical images they conjure up teem with contrasts and epiphanies that reveal traces of individual and collective memory, fluidly blending different eras and cultures. Papaioannou constructs dream worlds brimming with deep-rooted archetypes and iconographies, elements rooted in human experience as well as art history.

Over the years, at the invitation of Festival Aperto, performances by Trisha Brown Dance Company (2009), Shen Wei Dance Arts (2011), Wayne McGregor | Random Dance (2013), Hofesh Shechter Dance Company (2015), Saburo Teshigawara (2017), Peeping Tom (2021) and Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker (2024) have been presented at Collezione Maramotti.