Machines in Lasting Motion/Island Club

“I evoke a dancing woman. A woman? No. A bouncing line with harmonious rhythm. I evoke a luminous projection on veils! Precise matter! No. Fluid rhythms … Harmony of lines. Harmony of light. Lines, surfaces, volumes evolving directly, without the artifice of evocation, in the logic of its forms, dispossessed of any overly human sense, allowing an elevation towards the abstract, thus giving more space to sensations and to dreams…” — Germaine Dulac

The Island Club, in collaboration with the Rialto Theatre and Light Cone, presents Machines in Lasting Motion, a screening of early 20th-century avant-garde films by Germaine Dulac, Ralph Steiner, Henri Chomette, Oswell Blakeston and Francis Bruguière. Through experimentations with light and movement, the works jointly explore the expressive potential of industrial technologies and machinery, drawing intricate parallels between the mechanical and the human.

The screening will be accompanied by live performances by Ichomagnetic Thoughts (Antonia Kattou and Stelios Antoniou), Kristia Michael and Pandelis Diamantides, who will be presenting original music in response to the films.

Pandelis Diamantides is an electronic music composer, new media artist and researcher who splits his time between Cyprus, Greece and the Netherlands. His compositions and audiovisual performances are carefully crafted, highly immersive experiences. He has taken part in various collaborative projects, creating sound, visuals and software for contemporary dance, theatre and interactive audiovisual installations and performances. His work has been presented in international festivals, concert halls, clubs, theatres, galleries and museums in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, South America, and the United States. These include MoMA PS1 (New York), the 55th Venice Biennale, Bozar Centre for Fine Arts (Brussels), Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (Madrid), the Madrid Planetarium, the Benaki Museum (Athens), the FOAM Museum (Amsterdam) and FOAM X Arles. His works include Green (2011), False Awakenings (2015), Go Back to Hiding in the Shadows (2019), Quickly Photographed and Released Unharmed (2020), and Παλμός (2022). Website: www.pandelisdiamantides.com/

Kristia Michael is a Cypriot vocalist, composer and sound artist based in The Netherlands. Her work centres on contemporary and early Western music and the research and use of extended vocal techniques, pure tones, folk timbres and elements from performance art. As a vocalist, she focuses on collaborations with composers on commissions, world premieres, operas, recordings, and other projects, and works with early and contemporary music festivals around Europe. She has performed as a soloist at the National Opera and Ballet in Amsterdam and collaborated with the Opera Forward Festival, the Cyprus Symphony Orchestra and K3 Tanzplan Hamburg, among others. Her compositions, which include vocal works and multichannel sound installations, have been presented at the State Heritage Museum (St. Petersburg), SPRING Festival (Netherlands), the IMZ International Music + Media Centre (Austria), Dom Radio (St. Petersburg) and Epicentroom Festival (St. Petersburg). She is the founder and artistic director of the medieval music ensemble, Sibil•la Ensemble. Website: www.kristiamichael.com

Ichomagnetic Thoughts is a duo consisting of Antonia Kattou and Stelios Antoniou. Combining their respective backgrounds—which span music production, sound design, percussion, contemporary classical music, ethnomusicology and storytelling—their work encompasses electroacoustic composition, ambient soundscapes and free improvisation, incorporating electronics, synthesisers, percussion, field recordings and sounds from found objects. Their performances take the form of conceptual, interactive encounters that unfold an expansive and transdisciplinary space for composing and improvising through experimentations with silence, ambience and the fragility of sound. Formed in May 2022, they have performed and presented work at various venues, festivals and exhibitions in Cyprus. Their debut album, 222555, will be self-released in March 2023. Website: https://linktr.ee/ichomagneticthoughts

Programme curation: Androula Kafa
Films selected in dialogue with Miguel Armas, courtesy of Light Cone

The event is presented in the framework of FlashArt @ Rialto.

Rialto Theatre, Andrea Drousioti Heroes square 3040 L/sol
Friday 17 March 2023, 20:30 (50’)

Tickets: €10 / €5 (concession)
E-ticket: www.rialto.com.cy
Box Office: 77 77 77 45 (Monday – Friday 10:00 -15:00)