Name: Learning with mountains: Recalibrating how we understand art and planet, International Conference
Start: 2025-02-06T08:45:00+02:00
End: 2025-02-08T18:00:00+02:00
Location: ARTos Cultural and Research

Learning with mountains: Recalibrating how we understand art and planet, International Conference

International Conference | Learning with mountains; recalibrating how we understand art and planet
6 - 7 February 2025, Artos Cultural and Research House in Nicosia
8 February 2025, Kapedes Primary School in Kapedes

“Learning with mountains; recalibrating how we understand art and planet” is an international conference exploring the connection between art and ecology. It is organised by Celadon Center for Arts & Ecologies and is taking place on the 6th and 7th of February at Artos Cultural and Research House in Nicosia and on the 8th of February at the Kapedes Primary School in Kapedes.
The conference negotiates how contemporary art demonstrates a deep engagement with planetary issues and increasingly aims at shifting our attention to the natural world, ecology and the need to develop environmental consciousness. Since the 1970s, cultural practitioners have been active in trying to sensitise publics 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 our relationship with the natural world. What is more, 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. Like never before, the visual arts are playing a key role in understanding important environmental issues of our times. Some of the key issues addressed by the conference presentations and parallel activities are how the arts approach nature as 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, forty –five 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.
The full programme and abstract booklet can be accessed via the conference website: https://learningwithmountainsconference.wordpress.com.
There is no fee to participate but registration is mandatory via the website.
The conference has been developed by Leontios Toumpouris, Evanthia (Evi) Tselika, Gabriel Koureas, Elena Parpa and Constantinos Taliotis. The conference “Learning with mountains” is organized by Celadon Center for Arts & Ecologies. It is funded by the Department of Contemporary Culture of the Deputy Ministry of Culture, Republic of Cyprus and Celadon Center for Arts & Ecologies; and supported by the BA in Fine Art, University of Nicosia and the Municipality of Kapedes.
Celadon Center for Arts & Ecologies is a non-for-profit arts organisation, based in the village of Kapedes in rural Nicosia. It focuses on ecology, queer discourses and civic/social issues through art and culture. Celadon aims to create a collaborative framework, where cultural producers, artists and researchers come together to cultivate artistic and critical thinking, ecological awareness and respectful practices. Its goal is to nurture a creative long lasting community of diverse ecologies, operating within an expanded network of exchanges with like-minded people and organisations, locally and internationally.
It was instigated in 2024 by a small group of art historians/theoreticians and practitioners–Gabriel Koureas, Elena Parpa, Leontios Toumpouris and Evi Tselika.
In February and March 2025 Celadon Center for Arts & Ecologies will carry out two interrelated projects focusing on rethinking our relationship to nature. The first, an international conference Learning with Mountains: Recalibrating How We Understand Art and Planet will take place between 6-8 February. It will be followed by the exhibition and public events programme ‘Life like a horizon’: Nature and Wandering in the Work of Nicos Nicolaides between 22 February-16 March 2025.