Nightwater
Νightwater was premiered in Muziekgebouw, Amsterdam 12-14 September 2025, co-produced by the Muziekgebouw Production House and the I/O Foundation. This is the production page of the project.
Brief description
Nightwater is conceived as a hybrid experience between an immersive installation, a performance and a concert, which adjusts in scale in order to be in a dialogue with the venue it is presented in. The project has its starting point in the ongoing research by Thanasis Deligiannis and Yannis Michalopoulos; from the performance ENA ENA (Gaudeamus & Onassis Stegi, 2021-23), to the large-scale Margaroni Residency (Onassis Stegi, 2022-23), up to the work Xirómero/Dryland at Venice Biennale (national participation of Greece, 2024). It creates a dialogue between contemporary rural and urban realities, enacting an uncanny celebration of belonging, as well as of absence and dysfunction.
Nightwater can have two versions; Condensed and Expanded:
— A condensed version put together as a 90′ immersive performance that can be repeated without intermission multiple times in a day.
— An expanded immersive experience throughout the various spaces of a building/venue as a hybrid performance-installation.
CONDENSED version
I/O has worked on a condensed version of Nightwater that can be presented in a relatively large space, either being a theatre or an industrial venue. This version of the performance-installation includes a repurposed functional irrigation machine, 6 musicians (folk/improvisers/new music performers), multiple video & audio sources, and installation elements completing the scenic environment. The performance itself lasts ca. 75′, with 15′ of reset, repeated multiple times in a day (ideally x3). The condensed version can be adjusted to the dimensions of the venue, as well as offer to the organiser modules of expansion (e.g. elements that can be installed in the foyer).
EXPANDED version
Nightwater is conceived as a peripatetic immersive experience. Its hybrid format merges together performative elements, musicians, visual & audio installation. The work creates a dialogue between by installing a rural world, born by an agricultural culture, into an urban institution, such as a city’s performance venue or an industrial warehouse. It takes the panighíri (Greece’s traditional rural open-air feast) as a condition of people coming together, to unfold an experience of a rather dark celebration; one that includes atmospheric walks and electronic dance music, underlying dysfunctions and uncanny absences, while aiming to challenge the audience’s preconceptions of what a cultural institution today stands for.
For expanded version at the Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam has been a 3-day event, which included an electronic dance night in collaboration with the series The Rest Is Noise. The performance installation was a 2-hour-long composition taking place throughout the building, repeated twice. In these 4 hours (19:30-23:30) the audience would enter in slots (50 persons every 30′), with every group entering Nightwater in a different moment of the overall experience, wandering through the building in their own pace.
The Muziekgebouw version was supported by the Amsterdam Fonds voor de Kunst, Het Cultuurfonds, Onassis Touring Program, HVA International, Greek Embassy in the Netherlands, Aegean Airlines and the Greek House in Rotterdam.
Team on tour
Thanasis Deligiannis (NL) – concept, direction, composition & sound design
Yannis Michalopoulos (FR) – concept, dramaturgy & research
Gerco van Veenen (NL) – technical director
Kostas Chaikalis (GR) – sound engineer & assistant sound designer
Stephanos Droussiotis (GR) – light designer, programmer & operator
Frank van der Weij (NL) – project manager
Rania Mavriki (DE) – production manager
Natasa Tsakiridou (GR) – singer
Lina Alatzidou (GR) – singer
Alexandros Papageorgopoulos (GR/NL) – clarinetist
Saskia Lankhoorn (Ensemble Klang) (NL) – keyboardist
Peter Harden (Ensemble Klang) (NL) – electric guitarist
Joey Marijs (Ensemble Klang) (NL) – percussionist
Videos