‘The Woman Who Married A Tree’

The art project ‘The Woman Who Married A Tree’ is a photography project in development. The title is inspired by the international movement in which women participate in wedding ceremonies by symbolically joining themselves to trees. Although these marriages have no legal ties, their strength lies in the symbolic vigour they

offer, standing up as demonstrations for the defence and preservation of local nature.

The photographs are carefully composed scenes depicting a woman wearing mystical masks (half tree half witch) in various natural landscapes. The masks were designed and made by London-based artist Anaïs Lalange especially for the project. These masks have a particular balaclava-like design, which relates to the concept of the mask as activism by using the symbol of the tree-woman and the act of wearing a mask as a form of visual and symbolic environmental protest. Through visual narratives, the project seeks to unravel the ancient ties that bind mysticism, folklore and the natural world, and to celebrate the witch/wizard.

world, and celebrate the witch/tree woman as a symbol of liberation and rebellion, appearing as a guardian of nature.

Using references to ecofeminism, a current that seeks to explore the interconnections between women's oppression and environmental degradation, highlighting how both are linked to patriarchal power structures, the project emphasises the interconnection between femininity and nature, suggesting a special relationship between women and the environment.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Margarida Paiva was born in Coimbra in 1975 and currently lives in Oslo.

She studied Fine Arts at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Porto and received her Master's degree from the National Academy of Arts in Oslo in 2007. He has exhibited regularly since the mid-2000s. Some of her films have won awards at international festivals, including FUSO 2019 International Video Art Festival in Lisbon. His solo exhibitions include Erase, Muratcentoventidue Contemporary Art Gallery, Bari (2010); Every Story Is Imperfect, Oslo Intercultural Museum (2012); Traversings, Espaço MIRA,

Porto (2018); I Am The Forest, Fotografiens Hus, Oslo (2022).