PARIS: Visitors at the Panthéon in Paris were completely left amazed by an artwork demonstration that showcased dancers jumping from a trampoline onto a seemingly never-ending staircase.
The artwork titled “The Mechanics of History,” or “La Mecanique de l’Histoire,” the installation is the work of a young French dancer named Yoann Bourgeois.
It sounds fun at first, but as the stairs continue to rotate around the trampoline, dancers climb the steps and either fall onto the trampoline or are led down another set of stairs, preventing them from ever reaching the top.
As the dancers climb the steps, they either fall on to the trampoline or are directed towards another staircase leading downwards – meaning they can never reach the top.
Bourgeois’s piece is reminiscent of the Greek legend of Sisyphus, a king who was punished for his deceitfulness by being forced to push an enormous boulder up a hill. Every time he reaches the top of the hill, the boulder rolls backwards to the bottom, hitting him and forcing Sisyphus to start over again.
