Ioana Cîrlig (b. 1987) studied Cinematography and began working as a photojournalist while still in school. Since 2012, she has been a freelance photographer, developing personal long-term projects that focus on the industrial landscape and the relationship between humans and nature in rural Romanian communities. Since 2015, she has been developing the Zâne project, exploring the connection between humans and nature, as well as the myths and traditions of rural communities. In 2016, she co-founded the Center for Documentary Photography, supporting the production of over 20 projects and the publication of several photobooks, a role she continued until 2023, when she left the association to explore new artistic directions at the intersection of documentary, art, and activism.

From 2017, she has expanded her research into the botanical world, working with rare plants and visiting national parks, as well as imagining futures that examine plant-waste symbiosis and speculative space colonies. In the same year, she initiated the Accept all Happiness From Me project, focusing on spontaneous flora and botanical research, which has grown to include exhibitions, essays, and interdisciplinary collaborations.

In addition to her personal projects, Ioana Cîrlig works as a photo editor for a cultural magazine and, since 2018, has been the photo editor of Scena9. In 2024, she co-founded the artist collective FOC, dedicated to environmental projects.

A garden of the future, where forces are fusioned: the old, the new, the imagined. Plants are multi-purposed creatures, creating a space for healing, nourishing, magical thinking, healing.

Part of the research The New Empire an ongoing visual investigation by Romanian artist Ioana Cîrlig. Started in 2017, initially as a personal exploration of her relationship with Nature and Home, this photographic journey evolved into a broader inquiry into our connection with the Earth, looking at themes like: the concept of wilderness and our bizarre relationship to nature, science and research, the possibility of plant//trash kinship, the utopia of space colonies, and the sensuality of flowers.