The Syphilis of Sisyphus
The Syphilis of Sisyphus , a conversation with Mary Reid Kelley and Patrick Kelley A special event in collaboration with Poetry Day, a weekend-long celebration convened by Centre Pompidou in Paris. A video program that presents Mary Reid Kelley and Patrick Kelley’s The Syphilis of Sisyphus (2011) followed by a dialogue with KADIST public programs curator Jordan Stein. The Syphilis of Sisyphus is a short film centered on a pregnant Parisian prostitute who exemplifies Charles Baudelaire’s paean to the superiority of cosmetic over natural beauty. With sets that shift between Sisyphus’s boudoir and the streets of Paris, the work is an antic romp through Revolutionary and post Revolutionary France, with brief vignettes involving everyone from Diderot, Marie Antoinette, and Marat to Robespierre, Napoleon, and Haussmann. The screening is followed by a conversation about Baudelaire’s influence on the artists’ practice.