Relentless

High wire maestro Eskil Ronningsbakken steps into some shoes left by an extraordinary man.

Eskil Ronningsbakken, a 29 year-old Norwegian, is like a 49 year-old Frenchman. The latter, Philippe Petit, tightrope-walked between the Twin Towers in 1974; the other, Ronningsbakken, recently biked upside down 1000ft above the Norwegian Fjords in harsh winds. Both are Artists.

As Petit wound down a career in soul-stirring performances, he left a hole. There was no natural successor, no one to grip us like Petit had, no one to hold humanity in his thrall. But now we have Ronningsbakke and his arsenal of extraordinary feats:

"What I do is draw a picture with vulnerable human beings and their bodies in the surroundings of mother earth. That's the balance between life and death, and that is where life is."

Such a poetic approach aligns him far more closely with the school of Petit than it does with less considered stunts underwritten by the safety harnesses we, the public, can’t see. In 2007 Ronningsbakken balanced on a single ice cube 65cm by 35cm in size suspended on two ropes 1000ft over Dovrefjell National Park, in Norway. He also balanced on a trapeze upside down beneath a hot air balloon.

"I feel fear, of course I do. We are humans and we have a natural sense of self-preservation. But I must control that before I undertake any new project because that would lead to lethal mistakes. If I ever find myself totally fearless then that is when I will stop what I am doing."

And for his next performance?

"I dream of balancing on the top of the Burj in Dubai, the tallest building in the world," he said. The World Trade Centre for Petit, the Burj for Ronningsbakken: the comparisons surely won’t stop there.