Artists and Cultural Practitioners

Artistic and cultural practices increasingly contribute to soil visibility. 

Contemporary artists, photographers, and curators have explored soil as material, subject, archive, and metaphor. Exhibitions and installations invite audiences to encounter soil through sensory, emotional, and symbolic perspectives that differ from scientific or regulatory narratives. 

These interpretations may: 

• foreground hidden processes 

• evoke memory and identity 

• question extractive relationships 

• expand environmental imagination 

Learners may explore artists such as Walter Maria, Marlene Almeida, Asad Raza’s participatory installations or Betty Beier, and exhibitions engaging with soil, or visit institutions dedicated to soil knowledge and protection, including initiatives within the Global Soil Museum Network. You may find some museums with virtual tours as the World Soil Museum – ISRIC. 

Across Europe, interdisciplinary projects such as SOILSCAPE, SoilTribes, and CURIOSOIL have integrated artistic and cultural dimensions into soil awareness activities.  

As an example, watch this video about the travelling exhibition “SOIL ART TALES” (~ 5 min) which was produced in the scope of the SoilTribes project. 

© Museum of Edible Earth, in Kapelica Gallery, Slovenia, by Ana Machado, Aveiro University

If you are interested, you may explore whether similar events, exhibitions, or collaborations are taking place in your region. Engaging with such initiatives, as a visitor, participant, or contributor, can offer alternative perspectives on soil beyond scientific or policy frameworks. 

If you encounter soil through artistic expression, how does this differ from encountering it through science, policy, or everyday experience? 

Write a few lines in your Soil Diary.