In the exhibition's accompanying text, art historian Andrus Laansalu notes that humans have always had serious problems with the unfamiliar other.

"Anyone who is not unequivocally myself is that unfamiliar other. Of course, the other is by no means always dangerous. But sometimes they are. Sometimes we realize it. Sometimes we don't. And then it is usually already too late to correct anything. All those frightening experiences accumulated over countless generations live within us like the echo of a collapsing load-bearing framework. We know when it begins to happen," Laansalu wrote.

"But perhaps by looking at the earth, Mihkel Maripuu could learn this other side of the experience of being – how not to let evolutionary fears poison your encounter with the alien other. There are millions of different ways of interacting with unknown life forms. Every alien other can teach us a new method. What appears to us to be an organoid bloom is to some other creature a landscape, and to still another a race memory," he added.

Mihkel Maripuu has previously exhibited his work in solo and group exhibitions in Estonia and internationally, including in Germany, Denmark, Belgium and Greece.

In 2025, Maripuu spoke to ERR News about his exhibition "Exobiota" at Tartu's Kogo Gallery. That article can be found here.

"Alterix" by Mihkel Maripuu will remain open at the Tütar Gallery until April 12. Entrance is free.

More information is available here.

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