This weekend, Limassol will fill with artistic performances and choreographic pieces as the 16th Open House Festival arrives. One of the scheduled performances is Necropolis by Arkadi Zaides that touches on the severity of the migration crisis.

The bold performance will be staged at Rialto Theatre on Saturday.

“Since 1993, UNITED for Intercultural Action, a network of hundreds of anti-racist organisations from all over Europe, has been compiling a list of refugees and migrants who lost their lives on their way to the continent. As of June 2025, when the latest updated version was released, the list included information on 66,519 reported deaths,” organisers say.

“The total toll is certainly much higher, as many people are neither found nor registered. When scrolling through the many pages of the list, one cannot ignore the fact that only a very small number of the deceased are mentioned by name, leaving the vast majority without identifying details.”

In response, Necropolis is an ongoing choreographic and documentary work about unknown bodies. The performance acts as a poignant reflection on this ongoing tragedy unfolding at rapid speed at Europe’s borders. The piece integrates data analysis, choreographic gestures, and documentary practices.

Arkadi Zaides and his team delve into the practice of forensics to conceive a new virtual depository mapping the remains of the many whose deaths remain to this day mostly unacknowledged.

“Although there are no bodies to dance with in the city of the dead, it is precisely this absence – the collective body of Necropolis – that Zaides brings to life.”

Necropolis

Choreographic and documentary work by Arkadi Zaides. Part of the 16th Open House Festival. October 4. Rialto Theatre, Limassol. 8.30pm. In English with Greek surtitles. €12. www.rialto.com.cy. Tel:7777-7745