Laura Jiga
Iliescu
ethnologist and philologist
ABOUT THE RESIDENT
Laura Jiga Iliescu is an ethnologist and Senior Researcher at the “Constantin Brăiloiu” Institute of Ethnography and Folklore of the Romanian Academy. She also supervises PhD theses affiliated with the Doctoral School of the Faculty of Letters and the Centre of Excellence in the Study of the Image (CESI) at the University of Bucharest.
At the heart of her research is a desire to decode and interpret the mechanisms through which formalized acts of communication are shaped, as well as their meanings and specific characteristics in traditional, modern, and technologically mediated postmodern societies. Her work explores the frameworks of knowledge and representation through which messages connected, in one way or another, to tradition are constructed.
Her areas of interest include the dynamics between written and oral forms of premodern and modern cultural expression; the informal creation and transmission of knowledge through verbal, sonic, visual, and gestural forms; folklore narratives and ritual continuity; the imaginary dimension of knowledge (the bodily and spatial imaginary, the ethnology of dreams, video games and fairy tales); traditional and (post)modern vernacular religion;
folklore genres such as fairy tales, legends, and incantations; mountain ethnology; and the development of ethnological research tools, including monographic typologies of legendary figures such as Saint Elijah and the Virgin Mary. Her work also encompasses the analytical archiving and critical editing of oral culture documents, field research, and epistemological inquiry.
She is the author of three books and more than 100 studies, as well as co-editor of several collective volumes. Her most recent book is Biserica de „alături”. Câteva rituri necercetate ale ciobanilor din Carpați. Studiu de etnologie asupra religiozității pastorale (Institutul European, 2020).
Among her recent studies is When the “Other” is One of Us. Narrative Construction of Werewolf Identity in the Romanian Western Carpathians at the End of the Twentieth Century, published in Werewolf Legends, edited by Willem de Blécourt and Mirjam Mencej (Palgrave Macmillan, Cambridge, 2023, pp. 158–181).
Last but not least, she loves wandering off the beaten path and talking to people.
ABOUT THE RESIDENCY
The ontology of the way: strangeness and language
If Bucovina is the point of departure, still familiar to the traveler, the Highlands represents a further stage, one in which the feeling of no longer being at home becomes more pronounced, along with the desire to get to know the other and to allow oneself to be known.
What does the stranger mean from the perspective of both the hiker and the people whose lands the trail crosses? Someone who speaks differently, wears unfamiliar clothing and carries the paraphernalia of an unusual journey, perhaps walks differently and has other customs, brings stories from far away, but does not yet know the stories of the place. Among these are stories connected to space and time, anchored in topography, hidden or, conversely, marked by artefacts. A place is a palimpsest that incorporates layers of shared and individual memories, behaviours, sometimes ceremonial, which the hiker, once they have learned about them, can embrace, at least in part, as components of their own identity, however transient that identity may be.
A journey is a form of self-discovery and of getting to know the other, a learning process. You welcome the stranger and ask them for stories, because hospitality is an exchange of gifts. The question “Whose are you?” implies an acknowledgement of one’s origins and past, but also an openness to mutual understanding between people. Beyond an explicit answer, belonging is expressed through behavioural, sartorial and linguistic codes that are not always easily accessible to the hiker. Some already belong to the past, and the traveler can contribute to their rediscovery.
Take traditional “ie”, for example, which is not merely a costume, but also a particular way of making, wearing and displaying it, and of endowing it with cultural meaning. Paraphrasing Wittgenstein’s concept, it is a “language game”, governed by implicit rules that articulate and communicate the wearer’s multiple identities: who you are, where you come from, which social group you belong to, and so on. Understanding a cut, a colour or an embroidery stitch means mastering a visual grammar as rigorous as that of a spoken language.
The ethnological aim of the journey through Terra Memoriae, this time in the Highlands, is twofold. On the one hand, it concerns processes of linguistic spatialisation: places marked by their names and by local stories, which can only be discovered by travelling through the territory itself, since knowing a place’s name and history also means claiming it as one’s own. On the other hand, it involves investing local “ii” with the status of an identity marker through which the past is brought into the present and reinterpreted from a contemporary perspective.
Together, these elements shape a vision of the relationship between people and space, between the path and the hiker. It is a diffuse vision, yet one through which people from this region recognise one another and interact with others. Last but not least, what is the hiker’s role in transmitting these local languages?
ABOUT THE REGION
Here, the route enters through the first gateway to Transylvania, crossing a complex ethnic landscape that evokes the rich history of the region.
Traversing a diverse geography, from mountainous areas to lowland forests, from gentle hills to vast open fields, along Roman roads and former borders of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the way passes through villages such as the Saxon-influenced Dorolea and the more distinctly Hungarian-influenced Jeica. The region stretches for 210 kilometers across the counties of Bistrița-Năsăud and Mureș.
This is the moment in the journey when the hiker begins to notice how the landscape changes, how people speak and live differently. How no day resembles another, despite the repetitive nature of daily activities. The question of identity begins to emerge: who are we, and where are we going? It is not an easy thought; it weighs heavily in the traveler’s metaphysical backpack.
Highlands transforms thought from a domesticated animal into the freedom to be curious and the courage to be.
ABOUT THE CULTURAL IMPRINT LEFT ON THE REGION
The concrete outcome of the residency is an archive of unique local expressions, accompanied by a decoding of the principal ethnographic motifs found in the region’s traditional costume. The resulting document can function both as research material and as a guide for “reading” the landscape and its communities for travelers passing through the Highlands.
In practical terms, anyone following the route with this material in mind will begin to understand what a particular element of traditional clothing reveals about the community from which it originates.
The oral archive will be accessible via a QR code throughout the entire region. The decoding of the traditional dress will be made available in the form of a plaque reproducing the garments and their component elements, accompanied by explanations provided by the resident. The plaque will be installed at the starting point of the Highlands.
