52°12'22.09"N 21°01'33.75"E

52°12'22.09"N 21°01'33.75"E marks where I found a staghorn sumac in Warsaw. Brought from North America in the 17th century, this migrant tree, now considered an invasive species, became a reflection on migration, adaptation and belonging.

At the centre of 52°12'22.09"N 21°01'33.75"E is the staghorn sumac (Rhus typhina L.), a tree I encountered near my home. A migratory, dioecious, and at times polygamous species, the sumac embodies a complex and shifting identity, as well as a remarkable capacity to adapt to unfamiliar environments. Introduced to Europe from North America in the 17th century and initially cultivated as an ornamental plant, it is now considered an invasive species and is subject to restrictions in some countries. Its story becomes a point of departure for thinking about migration, fluidity of roles, adaptation, and the continuous negotiation of one’s place in the world.

My encounter with the tree also becomes a way of looking at contemporary rituals and beliefs, and at the human need to find meaning within our relationships with the more-than-human world. For Indigenous peoples of North America, sumac has held practical, medicinal, and ritual significance, opening onto ideas of the sacred, memory, and forms of experience that exceed the everyday. Today, it is attracting researchers around the world for its medicinal properties, its potential as a source of natural dyes, and its relevance to research into sustainable solutions.

Nature, too, was never understood as separate from human life within Polish traditions. Trees were planted beside homes as guardians, while herbs and medicinal plants were woven into the structures of houses, believed to protect those who lived within them. These practices led me to consider how we might create spaces that are both hospitable and responsible, spaces that acknowledge ecological principles of coexistence while remaining open to others. In this sense, the project emerges from tradition while turning toward a contemporary practice of dialogue, one that has become increasingly urgent within today’s public discourse on migration.

Placed within the urban landscape, the sumac exposes the tensions embedded in interspecies relationships. The same plant can be perceived as beautiful, valuable, and medicinal, while simultaneously being classified as foreign and invasive. It is within this contradiction that the sumac becomes a figure for the complexity of relationships, both between people and between humans and the natural world.