The Ground Shifts Beneath Our Feet, a Public Program featuring Talks, Food, and Film Screening
October 3, 2026
3 – 7pm
In-Person at the Museum
Presented in conjunction with The Ground Shifts Beneath Our Feet, a multimedia exhibition of Zhanna Kadyrova’s work
Taking Zhanna Kadyrova’s practice as a point of departure, and in conversation with Darya Tsymbalyuk, Asha Bukojemsky, and Liza Goncharenko we invite you to discuss ecosystems, land and ecological memory of Ukraine and their destruction in the ongoing Russia’s war on Ukraine. The program includes a book talk by Darya Tsymbalyuk, author of “Ecocide in Ukraine”, a conversation with Liza Goncharenko, editor of “The Earth is Burning” and a program of short films presented by Asha Bukojemsky, Kyiv to LA curator, together with a communal food break.
Schedule:
3 – 4pm
Book talk and discussion with Darya Tsymbalyuk Ecocide in Ukraine: The Environmental Cost of Russia’s War
4 – 5pm
Asha Bukojemsky in conversation with Liza Goncharenko, on Goncharenko’s project Landscapes of Recovery
5 – 6pm
Varenyky & syrnyky break, provided by East Village Meat Market
6 – 7pm
The Ground Shifts Beneath Our Feet — a screening of short films by artists Daryna Maimasur, Darya Tsymbalyuk, Zoya Laktionova, and Katya Buchatska that expand on the day’s themes. Selected by Asha Bukojemsky.
Participant Biographies
Darya Tsymbalyuk
Darya Tsymbalyuk is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures and the Committee on Environment, Geography and Urbanization (CEGU) at the University of Chicago. She is an interdisciplinary scholar working at the intersection of environmental humanities and artistic research, and her practice includes writing and image-making. Tsymbalyuk is the author of Ecocide in Ukraine: The Environmental Cost of Russia’s War, an intimate account of the damage inflicted on Ukraine’s rivers, steppes, forests, and wildlife by Russia’s invasion. The book received the 2026 Humanities Institute Book Award from Arizona State University and the 2025 UNWLA Kovaliv Prize in nonfiction/history.
https://daryatsymbalyuk.com/
Asha Bukojemsky
Independent curator and public programmer whose projects foster critical dialogue around the construction of identity, decolonization, and the politics of memory. She is the founder of Kyiv to LA, a cross-cultural initiative established in 2023 that invites Ukrainian artists and researchers to participate in a Los Angeles-based residency and public program.
Liza Goncharenko
Art and ecology researcher at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp, currently in residence at Residency Unlimited in New York supported by Flanders State of the Art. She is an editor of Земля Палає / The Earth is Burning, a collective publication exploring the ecological, cultural, and social impacts of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Her long-term project, Landscapes of Recovery, examines war-, fire-, and extraction-affected environments as ecological and cultural archives, with a focus on damaged forests and river systems in Ukraine.
