Sisyphus Museum
The museum as an apparatus of absurdity
March 2020. The Sisyphus Museum derived from the current situation. Galleries, off-spaces, and museums are closed indefinitely, the hustle and bustle have stopped, the future is more unpredictable than ever. With the Sisyphus Museum, a first attempt is being made to react to the closures productively – to create a possibility to continue an exhibition as well as the artistic practice.
In this dystopian-hard times, one may consider rereading the essay ‘The Myth of Sisyphus’ by Albert Camus, where he identifies three characteristics of the absurd life: revolt (not accepting any answer or reconciliation in our struggle), freedom (to think and behave as we choose), and passion (pursuing a life of rich and diverse experiences). One of the chapters pictures an artist as an example of absurd life – someone who does not try to explain an experience but simply describes it and thus presents a specific worldview that deals with particular matters.
Exhibitions in the Sisyphus Museum can not promise transcendence or give a universal picture of the way things are. Instead, it wants to portray perspectives that reflect our present time, which entails the creation of new presentation forms and rethinks relations with the viewer.
Existing material as the ultimate resource for and within the Sisyphus Museum.
So, the crisis is here, the world drops its pencils and stands still, and yet a number of leftovers – wood, cardboard, paints, previous site-specific works, hundreds of sketches, small test prints – are lying in the meanwhile abandoned studio, waiting for everything that is not yet coming.
As the ultimate physical resource of the Sisyphus Museum, it is precisely these leftovers and simply available materials that become the Museum's spring awakening, forming the ideally and truly physically present a starting point for future exhibitions.
It's time to take a step aside, to think about what we already have, recycle it, and as a result, acknowledge it as a precious resource amidst the idea of an impending museum. Within the specially imposed limitations of using existing material, it will be possible with and through the Sisyphus Museum to show small artistic works in the framework of exhibitions.
