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, Highlands represents the first moment when the path truly confronts the hiker with a sense of strangeness, the feeling of no longer being “at home” in the landscape they are crossing. Having left behind the initial excitement of setting out, the traveler encounters here an old and essential question of the Romanian village: “Whose are you?” It is a question that has little to do with one’s name and everything to do with belonging, origin, and mutual recognition between people.
Among the recognizable markers of belonging is the traditional costume of the Highlands, which is far more than a simple one. Using Wittgenstein’s concept, it can be understood as a language game: a system of implicit rules that communicates, without words, who you are, where you come from, which social category you belong to, and so on. Understanding a pattern, a color, or a stitch means mastering a visual grammar just as rigorous as that of a spoken language. The traveler becomes part of a process of learning.
The ethnological stake is twofold. On the one hand, it involves decoding the motifs found in traditional dress as a symbolic system, for example what a particular color, pattern, or embroidery communicates about the wearer’s status, age, or belonging. On the other hand, it involves collecting unique local idioms and expressions: formulations that do not circulate beyond the region and that, in turn, function as markers of belonging. These two layers, clothing and language, articulate the same question through two different forms of expression: how do people recognize one another in the Highlands, and what is lost when this language is no longer passed on?
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.
