An autonomous choreographic work, Turnover is Jacques Poulin-Denis’ first installation for museum setting. Mechanically animated, objects that are trapped in a never-ending cycle come to life. They are set in motion in an artificial choreography generated by a conveyor belt.
The hypnotic purity of movement created by these relentless artefacts brings to mind the myth of Sisyphus. Intrigued by the odd patterns and of this circular dance, we imagine the rolling and crashing of waves. Captivated by these automated gyrations and pirouettes, we recall the sempiternal climb of the Penrose steps.
Like specters in work shirts, they move and bustle, obediently carried away by the incessant rotation of the machine. The image of empty bodies – fleeting and ghostly – appears: a metaphor for human bodies subjected to manufacture work, repetitive and exhausting. Caught between an industrial coldness and anesthetic magical realism, we are lulled by these textile beings, the dancers of an absurd mechanized ballet.