Mel O’Callaghan's 'Dangerous on-the-way' Explores Ritual and Trance at Palais de Tokyo

Mel O’Callaghan's exhibition 'Dangerous on-the-way' at the Palais de Tokyo investigates ritual gesture and trance as elements of the human condition. The show includes a performance where participants use rhythmic objects like rattles and a gong to induce trance, based on anthropologist Felicitas Goodman's research on conditions for ecstasy: body position, repetitive movement, specific sound rhythm, and environment. A central film, shot in the Gomantong Caves on Borneo, documents the Orang Sungai community's perilous harvest of swiftlet nests, a practice dating back to the 13th century. Nest collectors climb up to 100 meters on rattan ladders and ropes over a 120-meter abyss, their work forming a ritual that shapes their cultural and spiritual identity. O’Callaghan's slow-motion footage emphasizes the tension and catharsis of their ascent, evoking Nietzsche's metaphor of man as a rope over an abyss. The exhibition also references earlier works like 'Parade' (2014), where performers endlessly pull ropes, and 'Ensemble' (2013), showing a man struggling against a fire hose. The artist frames these collective, physically demanding acts as a form of silent insurrection and resistance, creating a space of intoxication between life and art.