Abstract

SLIWINSKA, Basia. Joanna Rajkowskas Rhizopolis (2021): A rhizomatic refugium for caring commons. IT [online]. 2023, n.37, pp.1-25. ISSN 2617-3255.  http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/2617-3255/2023/n37a18.

Thinking with Joanna Rajkowska's project Rhizopolis (2021), conceived as an underground habitat for species that survived a series of cataclysms, this essay reimagines the home as a collective space for communities of care, generative of accountability, co-dependencies, and co-responsibilities. The installation created from tree stumps and their roots is a futuristic scenography for a non-existent science fiction film. It invites reflection on if and how interspecies symbiotic bonds can be fostered to account for co-nutrition, co-growth and co-existence for all bodies-human, non-human and other-than-human. Within the overarching framework of ethics of care and feminist new materialist discourse foregrounding co-existence and making entanglements, the essay engages with Rhizopolis to interrogate an alternative domestic space. Does Rajkowska offer us a model for a communal transspecies refugium guided by love, care, and respect? The artist's hypothetical scenario has transformative potential, imagining a home hospitable to all bodies post Anthropocene.

Keywords : contemporary art; home; ethics of care; refugia; environmental justice; new materialism.

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