Studio "OMI" & Pascale Martine Tayou: art installation by Sisyphus Fabrik

The masters of the OMI studio brought to life the idea of ​​the famous Cameroonian-Belgian artist Pascale Martine Tayou. The art installation Sisyphus Fabrik became part of the large-scale group exhibition “Democracy Again?”, presented at the PinchukArtCentre.

“Pascal Martin Tayu approached us with a request to implement his idea in the material. We have such experience working with artists more than once. For us, such projects are of great interest - it is necessary to accurately capture all the subtleties that the author wanted to say and put them into a voluminous form. While working on this project, we seemed to be on the same wavelength as the artist: he knew what he wanted, we understood him perfectly,” said Bogdan Kazachenko, art director of the OMI studio.

In full cooperation with the author of the idea, the masters of the OMI studio developed and approved the sketch, created a model and cast in bronze 5 different 15-centimeter figurines of Sisyphus, reflecting the Greek myth of lifting a stone up a mountain.

Statues of Sisyphus pushing a stone are mounted on an anvil in a circle, depicting the process. The inscription "democracy" is engraved on the anvil. According to the ancient Greek myth, for misdeeds during his life, the gods sentenced King Sisyphus to punishment - to forever roll a heavy stone up the mountain, which rolled down again, and he had to return it up to its original place. This myth gave rise to the expression “Sisyphean labor” - endless work. Thus, Pascale Martine Tayou reflected his attitude towards achieving democracy.

“I think that the relevance of this work will not decrease over time. On the contrary, thanks to the aging effect of bronze, it will have a richer appearance, and the value of the Sisyphus Fabrik art installation will only increase,” said Igor Ascheulov, art director of the OMI studio.