Altered Landscapes: War, Art, and Ecology project outlines topics that are relevant to both Spaniards and Ukrainians. They are universal, and at the same time, the lens that each artist participating in the project brings a personal, unique perspective to the conversation.
The exhibition is the result of an art residency at the Valencia Polytechnic University, where artists and curators, MA & PHD students and professors from Spain, Ukraine and Poland worked together for 2 months. Together, we created a common field for dialogue about ecology and war, where the territory of art became a safe space for discussion.
The main, unifying leitmotif of the exhibition is a common future that is not divided by national borders. Or at least which cannot be divided by geographical and political borders, which seem to separate us from each other, but in reality, we breathe the same air, the waters of our rivers and seas mix, and most importantly––we have the same consequences for everyone––climate change.
No borders can save us from the ecological crisis. This means that overcoming this crisis must be shared. The russian war in Ukraine accelerated and worsened these processes. We should use every opportunity to raise awareness, to dialogue about a common future. Art becomes a platform where artists invite us to think about what is happening around us. Pay attention to our habits, our cultural patterns––whether they are constructive. This project cannot solve global problems on its own, but it can awaken an individual viewer, have a dialogue with him or her about the environment. To remind that everything is connected with everything. That there is no more time to observe––it is time to act.
Curators: Katya Taylor, Laura Silvestre and Miquel Ángel Herrero-Cortell
In the Altered Landscapes: War, Art, and Ecology project artists raise the topics of tolerance, diversity, and careful attitude not only to those who are similar to us, but also to those who are different, whether they are people, animals or birds. Be sensitive to the experience of another, be open to change.
Artists offer us to rethink our history and tradition. Thus, in the projects of Kateryna Pokora, Ruslana Kliuchko and Marta Flisykowska, we are invited to think about how our history and culture affects our present. Is it possible to build something constructive on the ruins, or should we rethink tradition in order to have a safer future?
Carmelo Gabaldón proposes to pay attention to how the attitude towards the LGBTQ community in Ukraine, people who have been outsiders of conservative society for years, is changing during the war.
In dialogue with Carmello's work, Sofia Melnyk's piece also focuses on personal experience, where the heroine's alter ego tries to fit into a new environment, to meet certain social standards.
The project of Roser Domingo Muñoz and Jorge Dabaliña offers the viewer to meet oneself "behind the mirror", to see in a new perspective in the technological world, which does not stand still for a second and try not to lose oneself there.
These projects, which address various themes, together create altered landscapes, projections of the future that we can construct together.
KATERYNA POKORA
What is Yet to Appear
Strolling through the Jardin del Turia, I marveled at trees resembling an imaginary paradise. Later, I discovered its history rooted in destruction, born from a river's catastrophic overflow. This fantastical garden emerged, turning the landscape into a symbol of human triumph over adversity.
Contemplating ruins, I now wonder: Can a paradise garden rise from such remnants in Ukraine? The landscape of my childhood transforms into a haunting record of war crimes. Between two photos, Russia's dam explosion erased something seemingly invincible – the mighty Dnipro River. A white line on stone marks where water once flowed, a testament to the Kakhovska HPP's blast and reservoir overflow. Similar marks grace Valencia's historic center, bearing witness to the Turia flood's impact on once-flooded buildings.
JORGE DABALIÑA & ROSER DOMINGO
Interference
The word “interference” often has a negative connotation, often associated with lost signals or distractions that interrupt the natural flow of certain processes. However, in certain contexts it can act as a necessary catalyst for change. Interference is a reminder that established systems and processes can and should be continually challenged to adapt to new realities.
In the complex confluences and intersections that surround this artistic residency, interference emerges not as a mere disrupter, but as a provocative agent of new contingencies. In this installation, anomalies are transformed into a vibrant mosaic. Interference is explored as an ephemeral but vital manifestation of our time, a reflection on the fluid and dynamic nature of our contemporary reality.
SOFIA MELNYK
Oh! Fauna/Fantasmagories
War can’t consume all of human nature. It seems like a person can accommodate all challenges throughout life. But when we endure the loss and ruination of the world we once had, we also experience disunity. The shape is preserved, but the human inner undergoes is divided and/or bifurcated. This work can be related to the topic of queerness, because its ideas are based on the problems of heterogeneity of identity. It is also about hybrid creatures from myths and fairy tales, whose existence indicates that the way to explain oneself through changing one's external appearance is the most appropriate way to convey a state of inner turmoil.
That's why my video work is an attempt to transfer the inner duality to the environment in a somewhat naive way. And the place of action “Jardins del Real” is such that it raises related questions about the identity of the title with what this place actually is.
MARTA FLISYKOWSKA
Mascletà–A Celebration of Destruction
This unique video art installation, deeply rooted in Spanish culture, explores the environmental destruction of the Anthropocene era and evokes the unsettling violence of tragic events in Ukraine. The visuals and sounds of destruction serve as a stark reminder of violence and human devastation, adding a socio-political layer to the work.
Originally, "mascletà" is a spectacular sound show in Valencia's cultural calendar, known for its intense bursts of firecrackers and fireworks. However, this interpretation transforms the celebration into a horrifying depiction of warfare, vividly illustrating the scale of environmental destruction.
The explosions not only captivate visually but also symbolize the destructive impact of human activities on the natural environment, as seen in pyrotechnics in quarries. This installation prompts reflection on our influence on the planet and its consequences.
CARMELO GABALDÓN
After Devastation
In the silence of the devastation, rumors are heard that from the skeletons of the leaky buildings tell us stories of what could have been. If war is devastating for any citizen, the incidence, damage and exclusion increases when we deal with queer subjects. A war that destroys public space, is an act of terrorism that corners citizens into their domestic spaces, whatever they may be.
The creation of pieces that, despite their simple and reductionist form, have an emotional and psychological impact on the viewer. Incorporating confronting strata of signifiers and different textual layers caused by the confrontation between the subtle drive of the projected light, gold leaf and the hard contours of the stone forms. This ambivalence makes possible diverse and sometimes contradictory readings about the consequences of any war conflict.
RUSLANA KLIUCHKO
Blurring the Line
Over the past year and a half, my sensitivity has intensified, like exposed nerves in a world where every interaction resonates deeply. Sounds have taken on heightened significance as I constantly seek potential threats during shelling, distinguishing Russian shells from air defense, and calculating the proximity of danger.
The sky, once a symbol of freedom, now harbors the specter of death, inverting the balance of life and weight. Even the sight of a bird in the sky triggers an involuntary shudder.
Fireworks, once joyous symbols, now evoke reflexive shivers and a readiness to escape potential explosions. Birds, like us, face peril from both fireworks and bombs, blurring the line between celebration and devastation.
OKSANA UDOVYK Y RUTH MUÑOZ
Imagining the Future Cities We Want for Ukraine
Міста Майбутнього, Які Ми Бажаємо для України
This exhibition is the outcome of a participatory scientific process which began in June 2023 with displaced Ukrainian people in Valencia, Spain. Through in-depth interviews, planning workshops, PhotoVoice exercises, visualization and foresight sessions, scenario construction, and LEGO city, we have brought to life a dynamic dialogue to shape the dreams and aspirations of those who often see their voices relegated in discussions about the future of their own cities.
This project is a powerful combination of art and science, where displaced voices take center stage. In this way, their vision is contributed to the reconstruction of post-war cities and to the shaping of migration patterns in Ukraine.
In this exhibition, we continue this process and invite you to join in and share your ideas about the future. All material generated in the exhibition will be analyzed in future stages of our project, adding layers of understanding and enriching the collective vision.
Ця виставка - результат партисипативного наукового процесу який розпочався у червні 2023 року. За допомогою глибоких інтерв’ю, планувальних майстерень, вправ ФотоГолос, сесій бачення та стратегічного планування і створення сценаріїв, а також будівництва LEGO city, ми створили динамічну платформу для діалогу між українцями, що переселилися до Валенсії, Іспанія. Такий діалог надав форму мріям і амбіціям тих, чиї голоси часто залишаються не почутими в обговореннях майбутнього власних міст.
Цей проект - потужне поєднання мистецтва та науки, де голоси переміщених осіб стають визначальними. Вони вносять свої візії у процес відновлення міст після війни та формування міграційних шляхів в Україні.
На цій виставці ми продовжуємо цей процес і запрошуємо вас приєднатися та поділитися своїми ідеями про майбутнє. Весь матеріал, створений на виставці, буде проаналізований на подальших етапах нашого проекту, що збагатить загальний візіонерський доробок.
IVAN TSIDYLOИ
Synergy of words and numbers
Midjourney tools for algorithmic visualisation of understanding the essence and mood of contemporary poetry by Lina Kostenko.
Beautiful autumn embroiders maples
Red, yellow, silver, gold.
And the leaves ask: - Make us green!
We will stay, we will not fly around yet.
And the leaves are asking: - Give us that comfort!
The gardens are beautiful, the dew is like wine.
Crows drink pecked nuts.
And what about them, blacks? Black doesn't care.
Красива осінь вишиває клени
Червоним, жовтим, срібним, золотим.
А листя просить: – Виший нас зеленим!
Ми ще побудем, ще не облетим.
А листя просить: – Дай нам тої втіхи!
Сади прекрасні, роси – як вино.
Ворони п'ють надкльовані горіхи.
А що їм, чорним? Чорним все одно.
The theme of this artistic reflection is the horrific terrorist attack on the Kakhovka hydroelectric plant in June 2023. A large number of people died as a result of the dam's destruction by the Russians. Even more people were injured, lost their loved ones, possessions, and homes. A significant amount of local animals and vegetation suffered the consequences.
Infrastructure, agriculture, and the ecosystem were destroyed both downstream of the Dnipro River and in areas dependent on the water supply from the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant (KHPP). It is difficult to imagine the damage caused to the psyche of Ukrainians and the impact of this event on humanity's memory for many years.
Author and project director Vikhorst, along with students from the Performance course in the Fine Arts degree at UPV, under the guidance of theater director Chris Baldwin, will create a verbal performance based on the diaries of Ukrainians about the terrorist attack.
The catastrophe is not an event; it is a reaction. It does not exist without people. Without our reaction to it.
Coordinación proyecto
Maria Kotvitska. Cultucrania ES
Salomé Cuesta Varela. Vicerrectora de Arte, Ciencia, Tecnología y Sociedad UPV
María José Martínez de Pisón Ramón. Directora Área Acción Cultural UPV
Equipo CulturUcrania ES
Kate Kosmina
Kate Khvostenko
Mentoras/es
Adrien Sina. Arquitecto, artista, comisario, historiador de danza y artes escénicas
Yvetta Delikatna. Coordinadora de campañas nacionales en el Crisis Media Center (Ucrania)
Chris Baldwin. Director artístico y curador
Partners
Natalia Korchyna. Academia Nacional de Bellas Artes y Arquitectura Kyiv, Ucrania
Iury Lech Polanski. Fundador-Director de MADATAC
Natasha Serbenyuk. ArtTherapyForce UA
Alexander Nogachevskiy. AUCRM
Sergiy Savchenko. Savchenko Foundation
Web of the project in Cultucrania: cultucrania.org/renacimiento
