Rhizome

The performance titled "Rhizome" focused on engaging with nature, particularly through the use of rhizomes from wild plants. It incorporated text referencing the philosophical approach of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, whose concept of a rhizome features an open, non-linear structure that allows for interconnected points, similar to hypertext. This term is often used to describe contemporary culture across various fields such as philosophy, literary studies, linguistics, and art. The performance resembled a ritualistic experience.

In botany, a rhizome (from the Latin "rhizoma") is a transformed, usually thickened underground shoot that serves as a storage and survival organ. For this performance, I utilized rhizomes from nettle and couch grass. The performance involved distributing the rhizomes to the audience in different forms, including crushed couch grass roots and long nettle rhizomes. Both plants are considered weeds that are notoriously difficult to eradicate from gardens and crops; however, they also possess numerous healing properties.

photo: Joanna Głodek

While audience members combined the nettle rhizomes, I engaged in a series of actions with an enamel bowl filled with water, rotating it clockwise and counterclockwise to decipher words from an "oracle," inspired by quotes from Deleuze and Guattari:

A rhizome does not begin or end; it is always in the environment (...), between things. It is created between things; it is mobile, nomadic. The recipient becomes a creator — not merely by adding something of their own, but by choosing from among many available fragments of events.

The key element of my performance was when I wet the "hay" that was scattered around the bowl. With the help of the audience, I placed it on my body, which was covered with drawings related to the rhizome motif. The plant I used, resembling dry grass, was Tillandsia usneoides. This plant has no roots and absorbs moisture from the environment. When exposed to water, it changed colour to green.

The performance ended with me carrying a chain of rhizomes through the rooms of the House of Literature, where other festival events were also taking place.

The performance, featuring rootless plants and the philosophical idea of the rhizome, subversively referenced the festival theme while expanding the scope of reflection.