Machines in Lasting Motion

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 experimentation 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 on March 17 at Rialto Theatre will also 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.

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.

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.

Lastly, Ichomagnetic Thoughts is a duo combining Kattou and Antoniou’s respective backgrounds – which span music production, sound design, percussion, contemporary classical music, ethnomusicology and storytelling – their work encompassing 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 this month.

Machines in Lasting Motion

Screening of early 20th-century avant-garde films by Germaine Dulac, Ralph Steiner, Henri Chomette, Oswell Blakeston and Francis Bruguière. Live music performances. March 17. Rialto Theatre, Limassol. 8.30pm. €10. www.rialto.com.cy