December 2025

As part of the MATCH residency in Nicosia, artists Christina Zambulaki and Caterina Miralles opened their studio to the public at the Gardens of the Future, offering a rare insight into their ongoing research and artistic process.

The Open Studio marked a key moment within their residency, inviting visitors to engage directly with the ideas, materials, and questions shaping their collaborative project. Through a series of thoughtful presentations and open conversations, the artists shared how their work weaves together themes of food systems, land, data, and post-extractive landscapes, reflecting on Cyprus’s ecological histories and contemporary environmental challenges.

Visitors were introduced to elements of their research for Earth-bound Exercises, a project linking the Gardens of the Future in Nicosia with the landscape surrounding the former Hellenic Copper Mines. Using field recording, mapping technologies, and experimental material practices, the artists explored non-extractive ways of sensing and documenting terrain—approaching land not as a resource to be consumed, but as a living system in constant transformation.

The morning unfolded as a genuine exchange. Participants from diverse backgrounds—artists, students, cultural practitioners, neighbours, and environmental stakeholders—contributed questions, perspectives, and reflections that enriched the discussion. These interactions underscored the importance of situating artistic research within community contexts and demonstrated how contemporary art can open spaces for dialogue around climate, care, and our relationship with the environments we inhabit.

We would like to thank everyone who joined us and helped make the Open Studio such a meaningful experience. Your engagement, curiosity, and presence shaped the conversation and affirmed the value of sharing work in progress as part of the MATCH process.

The residency in Nicosia continues to contribute to the wider MATCH programme, strengthening connections between artistic practice, local knowledge, and Mediterranean responses to the climate crisis.