Could you imagine living the life of a tree? Monumental in size, alive but inert, they inhabit a different temporality than ours. Imagine the life of a tree this summer. Imagine trees wondering about us, about our weird way of defying facts, of risking lives…

Growth rings of trees reveal the seasonal formation of new cells. Dendrochronologists and other researchers have developed various techniques to analyze such rings, but these can only provide a static view of the past. In Alexandra Navratil’s view, artistic practice can enrich science for its capacity to provide real dynamic views on the natural and cultural history of trees.

This conviction led her to create a new work in which she concentrated on a singular species: the Encephalartos woodii. This tree was found in 1895 by John Medley Wood on the edge of the Ngoye Forest in South Africa, and is the loniest tree in the world. It arrived in 1899 in London where it continues to live in solitude today. The story of this tree enables Navratil to activate photography and cinema and the production of objects in order to provide many entrance points into life, some abstract—like the life of cells—others more concrete and tangible. In this new work, she entangles the language of the tree with the language of art to establish a dramatization of the future of the climate and the conditions of life, and the poor choices we always seem to make in dealing with them.