(Re)Grounding Artists Talk
Join us for a conversation with artists whose work is seeking answers to environmental challenges rooted in industrial and colonial pasts.
On 18 February at 19:00 (EET), the IZOLYATSIA foundation, together with D6:EU (Cyprus) and D6: Culture in Transit (UK), will host an artist talk dedicated to the online (Re)Grounding: from Beneath the Ground to the Future exhibition. It features works of artists created within Ukraine, the United Kingdom, and Cyprus in 2022 – 2024. The works connect environmental, decolonial, and cultural contexts shaped by mining histories in Ukraine, Cyprus, and the UK.
(Re)Grounding artists: Volt Agapeyev, Alexandra Clod, Dariia Dantseva, Dasha Podoltseva, Marisa Satsia, Oleksandr (Alex) Sirous and Karolina Uskakovych
Collaborating artists: Alexey Shmurak and Matthew O'Toole
Curator: Lucy Nychai
The artists talk will cover the environmental impact of industrialisation, deindustrialisation, extraction, invasion and displacement, and colonialism. The artists will also discuss biohacking, gardening, and visions for the future.
Over the past two years, the (Re)Grounding, Grounding.Invasion and (Re)Grounding 2024, artists have been researching environmental challenges during residencies with D6 in Cyprus and the UK and with IZOLYATSIA in Ukraine, drawing threads between the histories shared between their homeland and communities of the mining areas of Lefke and Skouriotissa in Cyprus and the North East of England.
The projects investigate the impact of industrial activity on the environment, with a particular emphasis on the effects of war, which has left its mark on both the artists and the programme itself. Originally, the programme was set to launch in the city of Soledar, eastern Ukraine — a city now physically destroyed and occupied by Russian forces.
The (Re)Grounding from Beneath the Ground to the Future online exhibition brings together the work of artists from Cyprus and Ukraine who seek answers to environmental challenges rooted in the industrial pasts of their homelands and the UK.
(Re)Grounding is an urgent call to build solidarity towards environmental justice through artistic production and community exchange. Connecting artists with heritage and ecological topics, (Re)Grounding journeys from Ukraine to Cyprus and the UK.
The exhibition is live until 28 March 2025 and can be viewed here: https://d6.eu/regrounding-online-exhibition/
(Re)Grounding is a partnership between IZOLYATSIA (Ukraine), D6:EU (Cyprus) and D6: Culture in Transit (UK).
The programme is supported by the UK/UA Creative Partnerships programme created by the British Council in partnership with the Ukrainian Institute; the European Cultural Foundation; Arts Council England; the Paul Hamlyn Foundation; the Cyprus Department of Contemporary Culture of Deputy Ministry; the Goethe-Institut Ukraine; the NewBridge Project; Vsesvit, and EKATE (Cyprus Chamber of Fine Arts).