“GROUND STUDIES FOR PILOTS – BLUETS” by Pandelis Diamantides

The Nicosia International Festival 2025 presents a theatrical performance with video projection by the internationally acclaimed artist and electronic music composer Pandelis Diamantides. The performance, titled “Ground Studies for Pilots – Bluets”, will be presented for the first time on Tuesday, 23 December 2025, at the Nicosia Municipal Theatre (20:30).
 
This audiovisual performance unfolds in two thematic parts, offering a holistic and contemplative experience. Each section serves as an opening into another reality - beyond borders, beyond categories.
 
In the first part, “Bluets”, the Cypriot artist collaborates with fellow Cypriot vocal performer Kristia Michael. This live performance is inspired by the deep blue of the Aegean Sea: a journey through sound, voice, and light that evokes a fully immersive sensation. Here, blue becomes more than a color; it becomes an emotion. The music draws on the emotional and symbolic dimensions of the Mediterranean blue, exploring memory, displacement, and silence through voice, electronics, and visual abstraction. With a distinctly Mediterranean atmosphere and lyrical sensitivity, the work invites a quiet yet deeply emotional introspection on identity and belonging.
 
The second part, “Ground Studies for Pilots”, guides us into a poetic reflection on human fragility through the image of a pilot preparing for takeoff. The concept originated from a pilot training manual that Diamantides studied during the covid period. The body becomes the instrument: heartbeats, breath, and biometric data are transformed into sound and light.
 
“Ground Studies for Pilots – Bluets”, which was previously presented once at the Eufonic Festival in Spain, raises questions about how we perceive reality in a technologically saturated world - questions about the steps we take toward the future, and how we prepare for them, or fail to. The work finds an especially resonant setting in Nicosia: a city both divided and unifying, an ideal backdrop for this existential inquiry.
 
About Pandelis Diamantides
 
Pandelis Diamantides is a new media artist, electronic music composer, and researcher living and working between Amsterdam, Athens, and Nicosia. His work merges experimental electronic music, contemporary technology, and meditative aesthetics. He has collaborated with artists in dance, theatre, and interactive arts, and his works have been presented at major festivals and institutions including: MoMA PS1 (New York), the Venice Biennale, Bozar (Brussels), Museo Reina Sofía (Madrid), MACRO (Rome), the Benaki Museum, FOAM (Amsterdam), the Athens Digital Arts Festival, TodaysArt (The Hague), and the Amsterdam Dance Event. He has taught and lectured at institutions such as the China Academy of Arts, the University of the Andes, and the School of Fine Arts of the University of the Peloponnese. He currently directs Studio Pandelis Diamantides in the Netherlands.
 
About Kristia Michael
 
Kristia Michael is a Cyprus-based vocalist and sound artist whose practice bridges medieval, contemporary, and experimental vocal traditions. She explores the ritualistic and spiritual dimensions of sound, often through multichannel spatial environments.
 
Credits
Composer/ performer: Pandelis Diamantides
Vocals: Kristia Michael
 
Duration: 80΄
Age group: Suitable for all ages
 
* This performance includes strobe lighting.
 
Tickets:
Available online via more.com: http://bit.ly/4grNxB8 and the Nicosia Municipal Theatre box office (Monday - Friday 10:00-13:00).
 
Ticket prices:
 
VIP: €14/ €16
ZONE A: €12/ €14
ZONE B: €10/ €12
ZONE C: €10
ZONE D: €10
 
Reduced tickets are valid for: Children, students, soldiers, pensioners, large families, unemployed, actors, people with disabilities (free) with presentation of relevant ID.
 
Information: 22797979 (Monday - Friday 10:00-13:00)
& http://bit.ly/3VjZ0ZG
 
Festival identity
Organisers: Nicosia Municipality, Nicosia For Art
Festival sponsors: OPAP Cyprus, ALTIA, more.com, Cyprus Public Transport
Supportes: Travelhouse, UCLan Cyprus, WINECORE, Gate Twenty Two Boutique Hotel, Classic Hotel Nicosia
Media sponsors: DIAS Publishing & SIGMA TV, LOVE FM 100.7, and “KATHIMERINI” newspaper