Artists from Ukraine and Cyprus have been seeking answers to environmental challenges during residencies with D6 in Cyprus and the UK and with IZOLYATSIA in Ukraine.

While focussed on the climate crisis, the programme has unfolded against Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, highlighting the complex intersections between social, political and environmental issues and the vital role culture plays in navigating them. 

(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. 

Artists taking part in residencies in Cyprus and the UK will reflect on these industrial histories to create new work to enable ways to expose the climate crisis, promoting the future green rebuilding of Ukraine and working towards a socially-just, green transition for the UK, Cyprus and beyond.  

(Re)Grounding 2024 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 Deputy Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Cyprus and the Paul Hamlyn Foundation.