Nuclear landscape
On 15 November 2023, at 19:00, the second public talk will take place as part of the Grounding. Invasion residency. During the event, Denys Vyshnevskyi, the Ukrainian zoologist, radio ecologist, author of a number of books and articles on the ecology of the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone, and Oksana Semenik, an art historian, journalist and researcher, will discuss the historical and future environmental threats posed by Ukraine's nuclear facilities in the context of Russia's war in Ukraine, as well as the representation of the nuclear threat in Ukrainian art.
Ukraine's nuclear landscapes are and have been, under Russian occupation since the full-scale war began, including the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone and Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. In this session, our experts discuss the historical and future environmental threats posed by Ukraine's nuclear landscapes in the context of Russia's war in Ukraine, as well as why the memory of Chornobyl needs to be worked on and how the Chornobyl disaster has influenced Ukrainian art.
The programme Grounding. Invasion is an online residency for Ukrainian artists who create works to revise the consequences of aggressive military intervention and draw attention to the ecological state of the country today. The programme takes place in an online educational and artistic format, consisting of a public discussion programme with experts in ecology and the post-industrial era and an online residency during which four participants will develop their projects with curatorial and mentoring support. The programme will result in an online presentation of art projects and their publication on the website.
Oksana Semenik is an art historian, journalist, researcher and communicator. She is the author of the Ukrainian Art History Twitter account. She has been presented in various publications such as Ukrainska Pravda, Livyi Bereh, Korydor, Vogue Ukraine, Your Art, and others. She graduated with a master's degree in art history from the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. She also studied at Rutgers University in the US and interned at the Zimmerli Museum. She is an active advocate of Ukrainian heritage in foreign museums. Oksana researches the Chornobyl disaster in Ukrainian art and talks about its impact and images.
Denys Vyshnevskyi is a Ukrainian zoologist, radioecologist, and author of a number of books and articles on the ecology of the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone. He is the head of the radiation and environmental monitoring group at the state specialized enterprise «Ecocenter». He has been working in the exclusion zone since 2000. His interests include the radioecology of terrestrial ecosystems and biodiversity of the Chornobyl zone. Since 2019, he has been the head of the Chornobyl Biosphere Reserve scientific department.
Event date: 15.11.2023
The Grounding.Invasion project is funded by the Stabilisation Fund for Culture and Education 2023 of the German Federal Foreign Office and the Goethe-Institut.