Soleil de plomb / Rhizome

Beyond the shade

The sun is as heavy as lead.

On my way, I found a sacred tree squeezed in between the Mandarin Oriental and Hilton hotels’ concrete blocks.

Wrapped in colorful cloth and a collection of costumes hanging around it.

In Bangkok’s urban geometry, nature seems to have less and less space to grow.

From the elevated walkway, I glance at the vast empty lots and the juxtaposition of “real” and “fake” trees.

“A rhizome may be broken or shattered at a given spot, but it will start up again on one of its old lines, or on new lines.”

Fold: a site for resistance that is apt to modify or overturn the surrounding power relations.

I recently read those words and was reminded of the concept of rhizome (subterranean stems, not roots or radicles) and fold as told by Deleuze and Guattari. They hold a particularly strong meaning in this day and age.

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REFERENCES

Community Movements in Southeast Asia, an Anthropological Perspective of Assemblage, edited by Ryoko Nishi and Shigeharu Tanabe, 2022.

A Thousand Plateaus, Capitalism and Schizophrenia, Deleuze and Guattari, 1980.