Exploring the connection between art and ecology, a Cyprus-based event looks at people’s relationship with the natural world

An upcoming conference will look into mountains in general, not just those in Cyprus. The Learning With Mountains; Recalibrating How We Understand Art and Planet is an international conference in Nicosia and Kapedes this February, exploring the connection between art and ecology.

Organised by Celadon Centre for Arts & Ecologies, it takes place first at Artos Cultural and Research House in Nicosia on February 6 and 7 and then at the Kapedes Primary School on February 8. Free to attend (upon registration), the event is open to the public, welcoming participants of all backgrounds. And that’s not all. Following the conference, an exhibition will take place in Platres.

The conference looks at how contemporary art demonstrates a deep engagement with planetary issues and increasingly aims at shifting the attention to the natural world, ecology and the need to develop environmental consciousness.

Since the 1970s, cultural practitioners have been active in sensitising the public on issues related to the planet, climate change and the ecological commons – land, water and air. Through soft practices, the creation of collectives and communities, the production of eco-conscious artworks, and activist involvement in ecological movements, they have contributed to a recalibration of human’s relationship with the natural world.

Interdisciplinary collaborations between artists, scientists and environmental organisations have exposed the impact of war, colonialism, extractivism, ecocide, capitalism, neoliberalism, large-scale agricultural production methods and other systemic exploitations of the environment.

The conference programme unpacks how planetary issues are negotiated through the prism of artistic practice and art theory. Some of the key issues addressed by the conference presentations and parallel activities are how the arts approach nature as a subject, how the effects of climate change are represented, considering alternative ways of living together with the natural world, developing sustainability through cultural practices, and shaping environmental art and ecological activism.

The conference explores the ecological commons in relation to the arts through keynote presentations by Viviana Checchia, Antonis Hadjikyriacou and Umut Yildirim, 45 presentations by Cypriot and international scholars, artists and cultural practitioners and hands-on workshops by artists and scholars. The conference includes a screening of short films curated by Constantinos Taliotis and the official launch of the Celadon Center for Arts & Ecologies in the village of Kapedes.

Continuing the discussions, the conference will be followed by the exhibition and public events programme Life Like a Horizon: Nature and Wandering in the Work of Nicos Nicolaides between February 22 and March 16 at Minerva Hotel in Pano Platres.

Learning With Mountains; Recalibrating How We Understand Art and Planet

International conference exploring the connection between art and ecology. February 6-7. Artos Cultural and Research House, Nicosia. February 8. Kapedes Primary School, Kapedes. Free. Registrations needed. https://learningwithmountainsconference.wordpress.com for the full programme and abstract booklet