Founding Fathers

This series depicts the root systems of rose varieties bred and named after the founding figures of the European project. Once cultivated as living tributes to political ideals—unity, cooperation, and post-war reconstruction—these plants circulated as symbolic extensions of diplomatic ambition.

The works trace the difficulty of accessing and transporting these specimens across national borders in the wake of Brexit, as renewed political fragmentation and the reassertion of national boundaries reshape Europe. As integration falters under right-wing resurgence, the circulation of these living symbols becomes increasingly constrained, mirroring the conditions they were once meant to overcome.

Cibic isolates the roots from the bloom, shifting attention from surface to structure. Detached from their ornamental function, the plants are no longer read as emblems of celebration, but as residual systems—fragile networks that once sustained a political imaginary. Their surfaces are inhabited by moths, introducing a vanitas dimension that foregrounds decay, transformation, and the erosion of meaning over time. The photographed root systems operate as historical ready-mades: forms through which ideology was materialised and circulated, now reconfigured as images that register its afterlife.

The series draws a parallel between the life cycle of the plant and the trajectories of the political figures they commemorate. As the roses fall out of cultivation, so too do the ideologies they once symbolised lose their currency. What remains are traces—preserved, archived, and increasingly rare—whose value lies not in their vitality, but in their capacity to signal a past vision of unity. In this sense, the photographic image functions as a secondary form of preservation, holding in place what can no longer be sustained.