How does the way we care for land shape soil life and food?
This question sits at the core of Margherita Soldati’s residency at Deveron Projects (2024) in northern Scotland, where she explored relationships of care between people, soil, and microbial life.

Working with ten local growers, farmers, gardeners, and smallholders, Soldati documented soil-care practices through conversation and collaboration. Together, they created a series of Winogradsky columns using soil collected from each site. These living glass jars, activated by light and nutrients, revealed layered microbial worlds that reflect ecological processes and histories of care.

Each column became a living portrait: microbes as narrative, translating science, sensory knowledge, intuition, and lived experience into a shared language. The research culminated in a collective event where participants co-created a semi-imaginary map of the soils around Huntly: a spatial, poetic portrait shaped by memory, collaboration, and microbial presence.

The work continues through the publication Good Gut!, which gathers reflections, visual material, and contributions from collaborators and the wider community.
Inside the publication of 40 pages are invitations to practices born during the research, portraits of ten extraordinary soil carers with stories of their relationship to the land, a collaboration on embodied care with Rosalie Bak, and an interview with Scottish soil expert Willie Towers. If you would like a copy, you can get in contact via the website or purchase it here via the Deveron Projects shop.

Photographer Anne Lakeman.
Good Gut! design Tom Joyes
The residency at Deveron Projects in Huntly was funded with thanks to Mondriaan Fund.
Special thanks to Jenny and the Deveron Projects team for making this possible and fun!