The exhibition "Unkown" is part of the Tartu 2024 programme and focuses on the cultural meaning of endangerment to bring to public attention aspects of extinction through artistic means.

The exhibition "Unkown" supplements to the Natural History Museum's permanent collection with contemporary artworks to address the human relationship to endangered and extinct nonhumans. It echoes the exhibition "Missing" that will take place at Tartu Art House (23.08–06.10.2024), a near neighbour of the University of Tartu Natural History Museum. With these two exhibitions, we aim to blur the boundaries between art and science to offer an individual grasp of environmental decline and interrogate the process and monitoring of species endangerment and extinction.

The exhibitions are related to the research project of the University of Tartu "Meanings of endangered species in culture: ecology, semiotic modelling, and reception", which emphasises the role of arts in raising awareness of the loss of species and creation of art works based on scientific research. The curation of the exhibition is based on the method of creative research, which brings together the practices of science and art.