Rialto enters 2021 focusing on artistic collaboration

Against all odds, and despite its suspended programme of events, Rialto Theatre continues to support local artistic endeavours and production by launching in 2021 new programmes for collaboration with Cyprus-based artists.

Following the second FlashArt 2021 open call for submissions of new works and collaborations, Rialto’s next project up is the Associate Artist Residence Scheme. The Theatre will assign to the selected artists the development of a project that meets its broader cultural development objectives through innovative and modern forms of artistic expression. The events will be focused on the audience’s cultural education and development.

Following the play development workshop titled Develop. Develop Again. Develop Better, which was implemented last year by Paris Erotokritou in collaboration with director Maria Kyriacou and writers Maria Ioannou, Avgi Lili, Stefanos Stavridis and Yiorgos Trillides, as well as with actors Elena Kallinikou, Yiorgos Kyriakou, Panayiota Papageorgiou and Vasilis Charalambous, the Associate Artist Residence Scheme is relaunched this year with a project titled Walking by Maria Varnakkidou and Constantina Andreou. Through a modern and inventive process, the two artists will create an experiential recorded walk/performance around Heroes’ Square and Rialto Theatre, which will narrate, recall old and create new images and experiences.

Starting from architectural and memorial sites, as well as artistic interventions, walking through the narrow streets of the area, gazing at the balconies with the laundry lines and the blossoming plants, the two artists will search for a cultural identity constructed in the course of time, while creating, through historical and social research, an experiential walk during which participants will feel the pulse of the Square and the surrounding area.

Archival research, interviews with historians and artists, workshops and open discussions, mapping and audio-visual production will take place prior to the project’s implementation.

The two artists will be inspired and influenced by stories and events already written about the city of Limassol, but also by things yet to be discovered. The project aspires to involve local artists through interviews and workshops that will be providing material for the creation of this experiential recorded walk. All of the project’s stages will take place between January and September, with the first walks expected to take place before the end of 2021. The objective is to create a timeless material combining the history of the area with Arts and Technology.

Maria Varnakkidou and Constantina Andreou collaborated with the Rialto Theatre back in July, during the first FlashArt edition, on the project Come Together, an experiential work inspired by the lockdown.