{"id":1011,"date":"2026-01-02T02:00:36","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T02:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/michalrutz.com\/?p=1011"},"modified":"2026-06-02T13:18:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T13:18:18","slug":"eco-queer-mythology-of-resistance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michalrutz.com\/pl\/eco-queer-mythology-of-resistance\/","title":{"rendered":"Eco-Queer Mythology of Resistance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

[\u2192Polski]<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Artist: Liliana Zeic,
Title: Floating pondweed and women who breed liver flukes on snails<\/em>, <\/strong>Intarsia, poplar burl, ash burl, Indian apple burl, steel, (4 parts), 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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During my first encounter with this object, my attention was immediately drawn to the human figures\u2014two naked squatting women. Their bodies lean forward over a pair of snails. Their relaxed faces, open hands, and legs spread wide suggest a lack of shame and a state of deep relaxation. Squatting is a natural resting position, now largely absent from contemporary life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The World Turned Upside Down<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The vertical lines accompanying the figures, together with the direction of the frogs\u2019 movement, guide the viewer\u2019s gaze upward. A narrow, dark strip of horizon cuts off the bright, underwater section of the composition; paradoxically, the terrestrial world is plunged into darkness and almost entirely ignored. This simple compositional gesture directs our attention toward what is hidden and submerged, focusing on the perspective of those from below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Rhizome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Biology, Politics, and the Metaphysics of Rhizomes<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Near the water\u2019s surface and floating upon it are the leaves of pondweed. Its stems\u2014rendered here as vertical lines\u2014can reach several meters in height. Although floating pondweed is capable of both sexual and asexual reproduction, it is asexual reproduction that remains its dominant strategy. This occurs through the production of long, creeping rhizomes that spread horizontally through the mud at the bottom. From these rhizomes grow new shoots that\u2014 even when separated from the parent structure\u2014are capable of continuing life independently. Even a torn or partially eaten fragment retains the ability to continue growing. This mode of reproduction entails the disappearance of a clearly defined center: there is no trunk, axis, or single point of origin, as in the case of trees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This characteristic of rhizomatic plants inspired philosopher Gilles Deleuze and psychoanalyst F\u00e9lix Guattari to formulate the concept of a non-hierarchical model of existence\u2014the rhizome. Rhizomatic reproduction\u2014dispersed, without a single center, based on horizontal connections\u2014embodies a mode of thought in which meaning is not organized around one source and possesses neither beginning nor end. In this light, pondweed stands as a politico-philosophical parable of an alternative to centralized power and knowledge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Is a Parasite Worthy of Care?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Another species referenced by the title of the work is the liver fluke\u2014a parasite inhabiting the bile ducts of many mammalian species, including humans. Its life cycle includes several larval stages as well as an intermediate host\u2014air-breathing freshwater snails\u2014seen in the artwork.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Decoding the enigmatic title of the work and understanding what the liver fluke is, as well as realizing that the women depicted are cultivating parasites, initially provoked a strong reaction in me: disgust and resistance, mixed with confusion. After some time, these feelings gave way to curiosity. Why do the women in the image nurse parasites? <\/em><\/strong>Instead of rejection and hostility, they respond with care, nurturing what is commonly regarded as pathogenic, repulsive, or even evil. This surprising montage\u2014the gesture of care toward the repulsive\u2014reminded me of the compassion that lesbians showed to gay men infected with HIV\/AIDS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Care as Rebellion<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

This was an act of remarkable solidarity at a time when gay men were stigmatized as mentally ill and seen as a \u201cplague,\u201d both morally and physically. During the HIV epidemic, critical blood shortages arose as infected people often needed transfusions and the U.S. banned men who have sex with men from donating. In response, groups of lesbians\u2014most famously the San Diego Blood Sisters\u2014organized drives, ensuring their donations reached patients with HIV\/AIDS, stepping in where medical and social institutions failed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Radical Compassion<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Once again, we encounter a reversal of perspective. Care does not appear here as an innocent or neutral practice\u2014it functions as a form of rebellion. This constitutes a literal inversion of the logic of fascism and capitalism, systems that often employ dehumanizing language, comparing minorities (ethnic, religious, sexual, and others) as well as those deemed \u201cunproductive\u201d\u2014the homeless, the unemployed, the disabled\u2014to parasites and pest. Analogies to diseases and parasites have always been intended to create the impression that given groups \u201ccontaminate\u201d society and that exclusion and violence against them is a \u201cnatural\u201d hygienic, biological and moral necessity. In this context, the gesture of care toward what is stigmatized as diseased, repulsive, and disposable becomes a radically anti-fascist and anti-capitalist political act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Eco-Queer Mythology of Resistance<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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\u015awite\u017a<\/em>, Julian Fa\u0142at<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u015awite\u017a<\/em>\u2014the Sunken City<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another layer of the work reveals its pagan-historical entanglement. The object belongs to the \u015awite\u017a<\/em> cycle and was inspired by Adam Mickiewicz\u2019s ballad of the same name, based on a folk legend. According to the legend, the men of the settlement left the city to fight the Tsar\u2019s invaders, and during their absence an attack took place. The event, described as a miracle, saved the defenseless inhabitants from a cruel fate: the city sank, forming a lake, and its inhabitants\u2014primarily women and children\u2014were transformed into poisonous plants. The women depicted in the work are precisely these inhabitants of the submerged city. They fight back not through direct confrontation, but through seduction: enchanted by the beauty of the plants and unaware of their toxicity, the aggressors begin to pluck them\u2014and perish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Piero del Pollaiuolo, Apollo and Daphne<\/em> (c. 1470\u20131480)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Becoming-Plant<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The transformed figures literally become part of nature\u2014both on the level of narrative and materiality. The intarsia technique used by Zeic involves inlaying surfaces with various pieces of wood (and sometimes other materials). Zeic employs the natural texture of wood to convey both the movement of water and the transformation of the figures. This metamorphosis evokes the myth of Daphne and Apollo, in which transformation into a plant becomes also <\/strong>a strategy of survival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pre-Christian Imagination as a Source of Resistance<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Adam Mickiewicz\u2019s ballad \u015awite\u017a<\/em> was written during the period of the partitions of Poland and can be read as an anti-colonial narrative. Mickiewicz restores the power of local, pre-Christian imagination, mobilizing it as resistance against the external authority of the Church, occupying forces (Prussia, Russia, and Austria), and the reductionist discourse of science.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similarly, Liliana\u2019s work invites the viewer to listen to the unruly spirits of pre-Christian worlds. Both artists explore alternative modes of being and knowing, returning the human to the realm of nature and mystical.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This engagement with the past gains added weight amid contemporary events. The work was created during escalating tensions between Poland and Russia, intertwining historical trauma with the ongoing war in Ukraine and the looming threat of Russian imperial ambitions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The work functions as an anti-colonial narrative, drawing on the legend of a community resisting invaders. Its power emerges through a fusion with nature, reflecting ecological concerns while simultaneously challenging anthropocentrism and hierarchies of beings. By transforming humans into plants, the work blurs the boundaries between body and environment, creating an eco-queer mythology that celebrates alternative perspectives from below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[\u2192Polski] Artist: Liliana Zeic,Title: Floating pondweed and women who breed liver flukes on snails, Intarsia, poplar burl, ash burl, Indian apple burl, steel, (4 parts), 2025. During my first encounter with this object, my attention was immediately drawn to the human figures\u2014two naked squatting women. Their bodies lean forward over a pair of snails. Their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1803,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64,68],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-essey","category-imagining-queer-utopia"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michalrutz.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michalrutz.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michalrutz.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michalrutz.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michalrutz.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1011"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/michalrutz.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1011\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1804,"href":"https:\/\/michalrutz.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1011\/revisions\/1804"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michalrutz.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michalrutz.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michalrutz.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michalrutz.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}