SOO 

2025-ongoing, an artistic intervention with exhibitions at the Botanical Garden of the University of Tartu 4.09.-21.11.2025,

Tartu Natural History Museum: Opening on 26.11.2025

In a time of the climate crisis, when we often feel we have harmed nature, mire moos offer us a second chance and demonstrate nature’s resilience by continuing to live after drainage and drying through rewetting. At the same time, they require constant moisture to thrive and are particularly threatened by human activity and climate change.

„SOO“ (Mire, Moor) is an artistic intervention that supports the protection of the Mire and combines artistic practice with scientific approaches, following a several-week residency of the artist Kristina Popov in Estonia. Conceived as a long-term project, it addresses the significance of mires as the largest natural carbon sinks, with a special focus on Sphagnum mosses native to Estonia.

The exhibition at the Botanical Garden of the University of Tartu, 04.09.-21.11.2025, consists of five parts, inspired by the five habitat preferences of Sphagnum species: a cyanotype installation, ceramic sculptures, a sound and video installation, Polaroid photography, and knitted works in the greenhouse.

Tooma & Endla Mire, 2025, Polaroid, 108 x 88 mm

Lavassaare, 2025, Polaroid,  108 x 88 mm 

This series reflects on capitalism and its destructive relationship with nature. It shows the  exploitation of the land for profit – particularly through peat extraction, which is burned for fuel or sold as potting soil. The images reveal the devastating impact of this practice on mire ecosystems. In addition to the photographs, peat blocks are placed in the exhibition space, raising urgent questions about alternative local energy sources, about solutions that do not destroy our natural environment.