Alexandra took us through the journey around the historical role of British colonisation of Cyprus with the following large-scale copper extraction, which brought people’s displacement, societal division and environmental issues in Cyprus. During her residency she experimented with copper dust that can be found in landscapes that have been impacted by colonial exploitation, and explored the sense of migration through other species, in this case being an old olive tree replanted and revived in Nicosia, Eleftheria square. She created an interactive installation puzzle titled “The Common Ground”. The puzzle was created from one of the photographs the artist had taken of an exhausted, cracked and dried out lake’s bed in Lefke, the abandoned copper mine area. The installation urges visitors to undergo the difficult process of solving a puzzle depicting Cypriot soil together in order to find common ground.

Dariia and Marisa took us through a journey of exploration into the world of biohacking. With their presentation ‘Atomic Number 29’ which refers to the atomic number of Copper as a metal the artists collaborated to invite Cypriots to take the opportunity to reclaim their history by testing the copper contamination in water samples from the mining areas of Lefke and Skouriotissa. Their presentation exhibited a range of petri dish tests carried out by locals with whom they shared their knowledge on how to test for impurities in samples from the respective locations as well as the notions of citizen science practices.

Thank you so much to Alexandra, Dariia and Marisa for their generous sharing, a big congratulations for their inspiring work and a heartwarming thank you to everyone who joined us for the events. 

(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 Zypern; the NewBridge Project; Vsesvit, and EKATE (Cyprus Chamber of Fine Arts). 

Images: The Common Ground, Puzzle Installation by Alexandra Clod | Alexandra Clod presenting her experimentation work with copper dust and photography | Remnants of Alexandra’s opening performance | Marisa Satsia presenting | Marisa Satsia and Dariia Dantseva presenting their work |(Re)Grounding presentations introduction. From left to right: Marisa Satsia, Alexandra Clod, Dariia Dantseva, D6:EU director Argyro Toumazou, curator Liudmyla Nychai, D6:EU director Clymene Christoforou

Photography: Andriana Lagoudes