Rialto Theatre has announced LUX_KILL, a new site-specific installation by visual artist and performance maker Suzana Phialas, running from 4 to 6 September 2026. The work was developed through the Theatre’s Associate Artist in Residence 2026 Programme. It opens on Friday, 4 September, at 19:00, with free admission and no reservation required.
The press release says visitors will be invited beneath the stage into a cold, raw and unexpected part of the theatre, where choreography, technology and architecture intersect. The announcement states that, moving away from the conventional experience of theatrical viewing, LUX_KILL transforms the understage into a responsive digital environment.
According to the announcement, three dismantled monitors sit at the centre of the installation, displaying an algorithmic body that reacts to visitors’ physical presence. As people enter and move through the space, their physical mass interferes with the local network, triggering real-time visual distortions and frame-rate collapses. The press release describes the spectator as an active force within the work, rather than a passive observer.
The announcement states that the installation was developed during Phialas’s residency at Rialto Theatre, through a process of construction, testing, failure, rebuilding, and experimentation, working closely with the theatre’s technical and production teams. The artist used the architecture and infrastructure of the understage as an integral part of the work, according to the press release.
The announcement describes Phialas’s wider practice as exploring the relationship between movement, digital technologies, artificial intelligence and the physical body. She approaches AI as a creative collaborator, the announcement states, investigating how algorithms learn from human experience. With LUX_KILL, this ongoing exploration takes a site-specific and physical form, per the press release.
About Suzana Phialas
According to the announcement, Suzana Phialas is a cross-media artist, performance maker, AI artist and curator working at the intersection of digital and physical art, with a practice combining choreography, performance, code and artificial intelligence, and a particular interest in movement as an algorithm.
Her work has been presented internationally, in exhibitions, dance and performance events, site-specific festivals, and screen dance programmes. Her AI-driven physical performance AiNA represented Cyprus at the 2024 European Contemporary Dance Festival (CCDF). Her work has also been acquired by the Cyprus State Gallery and private digital art collectors, and she has been represented by FELLOWSHIP AI since 2023.
Credits
Concept creator and artistic director: Suzana Phialas
Creative technologist and developer: Dominica Zofia Matos Nogueira da Gama
Technicians and crew: Andreas Pavlou, Antonis Stefanou, Georgos Kesides, Theofilos Theofilou
Production: Rialto Theatre, Associate Artist in Residence 2026 Programme
Acknowledgements: Alexis Vassiliou, Vasilis Petinaris, Nefeli Stylianou, Chrisilia Philiastides, Niki Vassiliou
Exhibition information
Rialto Theatre Understage
4 September: 19:00 to 22:00
5 and 6 September: 18:00 to 22:00
Visitors will have the opportunity to meet and speak with the artist at the theatre’s outdoor bar area on opening night, the announcement says. Admission is free, with no reservation required. The installation is recommended for ages 12 and over. It includes flickering lighting and low-frequency audio, and takes place in a dark environment.
Information: www.rialto.com.cy or 77777745.
