RELIC | Euripides Laskaridis // OSMOSIS

“RELIC started its journey in April 2015, but it was a work that had been developing since 2012. It allowed me to test my boundaries, explore, and expose myself. Exposing myself and taking risks to formulate a personal stage language—rather than standing still and stagnating. I dreamed of a lonely, unbalanced creature in a world made of nothing, just living, existing among objects, sound patterns, daily routines, verbal and physical challenges. A creature within a work that sought to be experienced rather than explained, to be lost without inhibition or apology in paradox, grotesquery, ridiculousness, and tenderness. Ten years later, RELIC returns, not as a reenactment, but as a conversation with time. It has toured extensively and presented at numerous international festivals and venues throughout the world, meeting audiences in various languages and cultures and demonstrating that physical theater needs no words to communicate with human experience. And, as a creator and performer, I’ve grown up with it. My body has changed, my relationship with the stage has been blunted, and I examine every hour and minute to see if the essence of the work is still there, alive—whether the work has a meaning, whether it continues to converse with the audience ten years later, and whether its commentary on the strangeness of human existence still concerns us. In the interim, TITANS, ELENIT, TOURNÉ, KAMARES, and LAPIS LAZULI were created, works that continued the group’s search for transformation, the relationship between the body and space, the dynamics of sound and light, the works that, together with RELIC, I like to call ‘three-dimensional handiworks,’ trying out different forms while also seeking new encounters. And RELIC was always present—like a capsule containing it all—inviting me again and again on stage, alongside those other works, in parallel and in dialogue with them. Now, ten years after its debut, this anniversary tour could mark the work’s final performances. A celebration of the group’s ten years of traveling? A farewell ceremony? I’m not sure if it’s closing one circle or opening another. I only know that the work’s lone figure—the one Aggelos Mentis gifted us with his so unimaginable talent—still moves, challenges, and tickles me to embody after ten long years! With all the tenderness, longing, and sweet suspense that an encounter with the past entails.”

A performance piece with 10 years of life

• 2025 is a special year for Euripides Laskaridis and for OSMOSIS, as “RELIC” marks exactly ten years of touring since its premiere in Barcelona in the spring of 2015. It has traveled to more than 40 international festivals, been performed in 18 countries and 36 cities, and left its mark in iconic venues such as the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, the Zürcher Theater Spektakel in Zurich, and the Lyon Dance Biennale. It has also been hosted at leading events such as the Aerowaves Spring Forward Festival in Barcelona, the Prague Quadrennial, the Dublin Dance Festival, the Israel Festival in Jerusalem, and The Public Theater in New York City, as part of the Onassis Festival “Democracy Is Coming.”
• With “RELIC,” Euripides Laskaridis and OSMOSIS embarked on an international journey that continues to this day. It became the ‘signature piece’ of OSMOSIS, attracting the interest of audiences and critics while earning significant distinctions. In 2017, it was honored at the Theatre & Technology Awards in the UK, winning the Creative Innovation in Lighting award, while the creators were also finalists for the Creative Innovation in Sound category.
• The 2025 anniversary tour of “RELIC” marks its final global appearance, with major stops across Europe and Asia. Beginning at the Onassis Stegi in Athens, Euripides Laskaridis and the OSMOSIS group send a powerful yet celebratory message about their evolution and successful trajectory in the international performing arts scene. From “RELIC” to works like “TITANS,” “ELENIT,” “KAMARES,” “TOURNÉ,” and “LAPIS LAZULI,” each piece highlights the artistic values of Laskaridis and OSMOSIS while also representing Greek artistry at major international institutions and festivals.

Reviews

- “He is the most ridiculous of impossible bodies, and so, on some level, the most tragic of Frankensteinian monstrosities. Your own brain keeps thinking what the fuck? and then: what the hell, just go with it. It’s worth it.”
– Sanjoy Roy (“The Guardian”), “Writing on Dance” – sanjoyroy.net

- “Anarchic, physical theatre that will live long in the memory. Euripides Laskaridis is a Greek exponent of the theatre of the absurd, without inhibition and possessing enormous charisma.”
– Graham Watts, “DanceTabs”

- “Laskaridis masters simple but effective movements and a colorful range of vocal sounds. His sharp imagination messes with our expectations of any familiar gesture or attitude he undertakes, transforming them into dreamlike connections. Again and again, each amusing twist makes one feel more and more at home in “RELIC’s” bizarre atmosphere.”
– Clàudia Brufau, “Aerowaves Review”