THE FOREST MAIDEN // ARCHITECTURAL VIDEO-MAPPING #2
“Not just into a white horse, the Forest Maiden can transform into anything!”
Most often, the Forest Maiden appears to people as a stunningly beautiful woman with hair cascading to the ground, but unnaturally tall. However, many locals from Maramureș interviewed during field research revealed that the Forest Maiden has also shown herself as an old, haggard woman, hunched like a trough. Some described her with horse legs, others as a half-horse, half-human figure. The image of a white mare, sometimes accompanied by her foal, is often linked to this mythical entity. The Forest Maiden wields the power of metamorphosis, a trait of supernatural beings, and in doing so, seems to toy with the minds of humans.
A dog, a blue flame spreading across an entire field, vapor, mist. Her ability to become invisible is just as effortless. But the Forest Maiden is most deceptive when she takes the form of another person—be it a stranger, a neighbor, or even a loved one—thus deceiving even the most skeptical and fearful.
This supernatural gift is the most bewildering aspect of the Forest Maiden. It encapsulates the symbolic essence of the mysterious, surprising, and terrifying power of nature. She evokes the unknown, magical dimension and the forces that dwell within this realm.
The villagers’ stories in Maramureș sometimes reach dramatic peaks, ranging from people who followed the Forest Maiden’s footsteps, lost their minds, and wandered aimlessly through desolate nights, to others who were left crippled or deformed. At times, she is gentle, warm, and sings soothingly. The Forest Maiden is as unpredictable as the weather. Indeed, when enraged, she stirs up storms that make mountains roar and flatten trees. Her manifestations align with ancient goddesses and modern trends that associate the feminine spirit with the wildness of nature, the mystery hidden within primordial chaos—where existential cycles end and begin, the fertile womb of Mother Earth.
Silhouettes of women from different times and worlds dance on the building of the Romanian Art Movement gallery. Cote illustrates the sensual, undulating feminine spirit in all its power, charm exuding from the pores of the walls, spilling onto the street, into the city. She transitions from the natural to the technological realm. Translated into code, she infiltrates the virtual.
Magical reality blends with virtual reality—the rural, ancient imagination meets the modern, urban one, giving birth to a contemporary mythology. This mythology retains the structure and essential features of ancestral myths but wraps them in a futuristic form. The fairy tale merges with science fiction.
Visual Video-Mapping: COTE
Sound: TUDOR, ANTITEOCTIST
This event is linked to an archival and field research project conducted in seven villages in Maramureș, featuring interviews with locals about their stories and personal experiences with this supernatural entity, as well as with ethnologists who have studied this subject in-depth.
Event co-funded by the Ministry of Culture