(RE)GROUNDING from beneath the ground to the future
(Re)Grounding online exhibition is bringing together the work of artists from Cyprus and Ukraine seeking answers to environmental challenges rooted in the industrial pasts of their homelands 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
(Re)Grounding is an urgent call to build solidarity towards environmental justice through artistic production and community exchange.
Over the past two years, the participating artists have been seeking answers to 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.
Their artworks are presented together in an online exhibition, launching on Thursday 28 November. Taking the artists’ research and responses to create a journey: beginning deep in the earth, moving to extraction and invasion, then to gardening and finally looking to the future.
Each artist brings a unique perspective, expressing their findings through their chosen mediums. They respond with poetry, performance, experimentation, film and photography, incorporating collaboration, science and technology.
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.
Not only do they confront contemporary challenges but they envision potential solutions for the future of Ukraine and a socially just green transition for us all.
(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; 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).
Shared mining histories
(Re)Grounding draws threads between environmental and cultural contexts, shaped by mining histories in Ukraine, Cyprus and the UK.
For both Cyprus and Ukraine, this can be seen through the lens of occupation and colonial power. In Cyprus, during the British Colonial era, mining industries (once the most important in the country) were controlled and exploited by foreign companies granted extraterritorial rights. Both Cypriot Greek and Cypriot Turkish communities from the area were working together in the mines, with common history and facing similar environmental issues from mining.
The traumatic Russian invasion of Ukraine continues its staggering human, environmental and ecological toll, deeply affecting the people and place. It is destabilising global food markets, including the production and export of wheat, and energy markets, with estimates that over 60 percent of Ukraine’s coal mines are in land occupied by Russian forces.
During the UK’s time of empire building, mass industrialisation took place and was exported around the world, powered by the unrelenting burning of fossil fuels. Now, the UK government’s regression on environmental commitments using narratives on energy security follows the country’s unjust transition in the 1980s, where rapid deindustrialisation decimated local coal mining communities.