Nadia Sheikina

Pr-manager of the project “Ukraine: Affair with Earth”

We are looking on Earth as on a Mother, Lover, Source of Inspiration, Associate and Partner in Crime. At the same time we adduce the fact of cruel exploitation of its resources. Affair with Earth aims to re-evaluate the meaning of Ukrainian crafts and shifts its mainly outcome-oriented focus to an on-going, process-based critical approach. Sources of materials, local production, sustainability and relationship to fellow (non-human) companion species become main anchor points. Rich Ukrainian mythology and traditional pagan rituals, based on equal human-nature co-existence, serve as a kick-off for a new swing of discussion about human-nature co-habitation. Observations and reflections on the phenomena of Chernobyl, where elks, deer’s, foxes, wolves, and many more species roamed the land taking advantage of human absence, while some species which were thought to have disappeared from the area (Przewalski horse)— were spotted within the Exclusion Zone again, Affair with Earth challenges privileged position of human in contemporary society by means of design within the local community of creators.