Interview/Editor: Eleni Nearchou
A copper island emerges from the darkness. Above it, a guard guards a secret he doesn't know. As he faces himself in his reflection, he realizes his mortality. Then the island reveals its secret, pleasure. As in the descent from Eden, in this world the being becomes mortal and experiences an incessant pleasure that turns into pain. Mortality thus becomes a constant desire, a passage from pleasure to annihilation.
The Cyprus Choreography Platform returns again this year for its 25th edition. As every year, this year too, young and experienced choreographers will present their work on the stage of the Rialto Theatre. The platform will take place from Friday 14/11 until Sunday 16/11.
We spoke with Dimitris Charalambous, about his work, "Artifact", which he will present at the 25th Cyprus Choreography Platform, at the Rialto Theatre.
What does Artifact tell? How did the creation of this performance come about?
Artifact tells the story of a body discovering pleasure. The conception of the work started from the ancient mythology of Cyprus and the rituals towards the proto-deity Cyprus (later the goddess Aphrodite), where pleasure, through sacred prostitution ceremonies, constituted a transcendent portal to the divine.
The performance acquires a site-specific dimension, as the work emerges from the very place that provides it with its inspiration. The non-figurative worship of Aphrodite is a source of inspiration for the creation of the central element of the work, the bronze monolith, a Kubrickian symbol in which an ancient memory and knowledge is embedded.
Through a personal cosmology, the play weaves a myth where pleasure has been lost, and the main character embarks on a journey in search of it. In a modern world that alienates the body from its nature, the embodiment of pleasure turns into a ritual of liberation. At the same time, the play functions as an allegory for the beauty and tragedy of human relationships, and how the desire they engender can elevate or destroy us.
"Desire returns once more as an artifact of love." How does this desire return through the Artifact?
In Artifact, desire is presented not as a raw, primitive instinct, but as a human artifact, processed through experience, memory, and the body. Every artefact bears on it the traces of its creation: the touch, the work, the wear, the intention.
Desire here returns not as a weapon of domination, but as a weapon of love. It becomes a tool for reclaiming the self by asserting the autonomy of the body and the power of love against anything that tries to define, limit or make the human experience. Love is a radical energy that brings the body back to the center of its being.
Photo credits: Quique Rios Ellis What emotions are you trying to evoke through the performance?
The performance embodies, through movement, light, images and the energy of the space, personal feelings that exceed the limits of language. The goal is for viewers to travel, experience, feel and perhaps recognize something of their own through the work.
Entering the position of the spectator, how can we expect to feel watching the performance. What do we "take" with us when we leave?
I consider that every emotion that is born through a performance is beyond my personal control and that for me is the magic of live art. The moment when something spontaneous, honest and unpredictable is born between the artist and the audience is, for me, the essence of creation. The live dialogue between the creator and the audience and the multiple interpretations of the viewers enrich the magic of live art as they reveal aspects of the work that I might not have realized, allowing me to see it through new eyes.
What is the role of events like the Cyprus Choreography Platform, both for the creators and for the audience?
The role of organizations such as the Choreography Platform is crucial in maintaining the vibrant pulse of the Cypriot dance and art scene. It is a way of cultivating and maintaining a sustainable environment that fosters community and the means for creative development. At the same time, it strengthens the formation of a cultural identity and creates a context in which Cypriots and creators active in Cyprus are recognized and celebrated.
I am leaving the context of the show and the Platform now. How were you drawn to dance? What was it that made you understand that this art expresses you and through it you express yourself?
I never saw myself exclusively as a dancer. My artistic expression spans a wider range of media, but dance remains the core of my creation.
What initially drew me to dance as a teenager, specifically classical ballet, was the discipline it requires through a very specific aesthetic. Over the years, my relationship with movement evolved and I developed a personal kinesthetic alphabet, a system of expressing ideas and feelings that oscillates between the primal and the post-human.
In this way I create my own worlds, with their own laws of physics and aesthetics, where the body becomes the ultimate material of an alchemical process of transformation.
Perhaps what expresses me through choreography and live art is its ephemeral nature. I treat my work as a transparent furnace, in which bodies and objects are fed and emerge from the other side as physical entities imbued with a transcendent and ecstatic energy.
Photo credits: Quique Rios Ellis
*Feature photo by Elyse Mertz
