FIRST ENCOUNTER (2025)

First Encounter serves as an amalgamation of the two works that precede it Glieser (2025) and Late Matter (2024). The work maps a personal, ever-evolving cosmology, excavating and inventing ritual situations that transmute the materiality of the body. Through spatial composition, cultural references, and live music, the work weaves its own set of rules, physics, and space-time. These elements create situations that flirt with the dreamlike, transforming the scene into an ecosystem of pleasure and eternal return.

The cosmology of First Encounter originates from the deep bowels of Cyprus: its scorching tropic of desire, deafening cicadas and heavy humid Augusts. It’s a ritual of immortalization, an encounter of oneself through another, and surrendering to being witnessed intimately. An exiled creature coming of ripeness desires moisture and conjures a hot boyfriend. A work that keeps reappearing in its most potent form each August.

Created and Directed by Demetris Charalambous in collaboration with Quique Rios Ellis Original music by Quique Rios Ellis Performed by Demetris Charalambous, Quique Rios Ellis Light Design by Sarai Frazier Produced support by Žilvinas Jonušas

US Premiere at Mabou Mines, New York, August 2025

EU Premiere at Ktirion53, Nicosia, Cyprus, August 2025