Ioana Cîrlig is a visual artist who primarily works with photography, while also exploring text, sound, and editorial work. She worked as a press photographer in Bucharest for five years. The New Empire [Le Nouvel Empire] is a long-term project exploring our strange relationship with nature. This collection of images is part of a visual inquiry led by the Romanian photographer, which began in 2017. Initially conceived as a personal exploration of her own relationship with nature and home, the artist’s photographic journey evolved into a broader investigation of our connection to the Earth, examining themes such as the concept of wilderness, botanical research, the possibility of plant/trash kinship, the utopia of space colonies, and the sensuality of flowers.