Connecting with soil through art

Communicating research results through art is one of the ways in which SIANI expert group Reviving the Roots aims to raise awareness of soil health and soil care in a country where a large share of the population depends on small-scale farming with increasingly degrading farmland soils.

In the summer of 2025, Kyrgyz artist-designers Aliya Edilova and Zarina Nazar collaborated with nine art and design students during a three-day art camp in Bokonbaevo village on the southern shore of Lake Issyk-Kul. Their aim was to explore and express relationships between humans and soil through art-making. Together, they created artworks based on the findings of a study conducted by the Reviving the Roots expert group. The resulting artworks are part of the travelling exhibition Mother Earth, curated by Baktygul Kapalova.

See the exhibition online.

Reconnecting with soil to better protect it

The Mother Earth exhibition invites visitors to rethink the soil’s cultural and spiritual value. Through art, science, and practical approaches, the exhibition seeks to awaken awareness, respect, and care for soil, uniting knowledge, emotion, and action toward its protection and restoration.

Interactive in nature, the exhibition integrates science, art, craftsmanship, and traditional knowledge. It offers a space to reflect on one’s relationship with the land in both a practical and a spiritual sense and provides visitors with knowledge and skills to care for the soil. It strengthens scientific understanding of soil as a living organism and raises awareness about soil degradation and sustainable land use. Many of the artworks incorporate both waste materials and soil itself, reflecting concerns about soil pollution.

From farmers to diplomats to schoolchildren, visitors realize that “caring for the soil means caring for our future”

The exhibition opened in August 2025 at Ton Fest, an ethno-festival on the southern shore of Issyk-Kul. Over three days, it attracted around 500 visitors, including farmers, residents, the Ton District administration, bloggers, activists, embassy representatives, and entrepreneurs. The exhibition left a profound impact on its visitors. As one of the farmers explained:

“We have been working with the land all our lives, but we rarely think about it as something alive. The exhibition showed us that soil is not just something to be cultivated, but something that feeds and sustains us. Now I understand that caring for the soil means caring for our future.”

After Ton Fes, the exhibition travelled to the Naryn Art Gallery. Again, it was visited by a large audience, including diplomats, local residents, students, and schoolchildren. One of the young visitors noted:

“I realised that we, young people, must also take care of the earth. [We should] not just listen to lectures, but take action. I really liked that the exhibition combines art and science, it makes it easier to understand complex things.”

The exhibition also attracted the attention of local artists, who noted its importance and expressed their support for this form of environmental education.

Making a national impact

The Ministry of Culture, Information, Sports, and Youth Policy of the Kyrgyz Republic highly appreciated the project’s significance and invited the exhibition to be presented at the youth forum ‘Kyrgyzstan of My Dreams’, which was held on 20 October 2025 in Karakol. After travelling around the country, the exhibition will be made permanent at the Bokonbaevo tourist centre. A digital version is available in three languages – Kyrgyz, English, and Russian – offering audiences around the world the chance to explore the artworks and learn more about the initiative and the artists. The artworks and impressions of the various exhibition locations are also shared on Instagram.

Authors:

Altynai Zamirova, El-Too.

Tatiana Stebneva, board member of the Central Asia Solidarity Groups (Centralasiengrupperna) and a PhD researcher in Central and East European Studies at the University of Glasgow, UK.

Simone de Boer, PhD candidate in Social Anthropology at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, focusing on the development and meaning of organic farming and permaculture in Kyrgyzstan.