That time I met Baba Yaga (2020-2021)

 

When I moved from a village to the city, I began to experience inner tensions and wasn’t always true to myself. I became curious: how did people in earlier times deal with paralyzing thoughts or inner resistance? What tools did they have?

This question led me to mythology — first to the Greeks, then further into the collective web of ancient stories. I found symbols, archetypes, and figures that reflected the very struggles I was facing. These stories offered insight, not through explanation, but through recognition. They reminded me that transformation is often messy, painful, and necessary.

Baba Yaga became a central figure in this process: the wild woman of the woods, living in a house on chicken legs. A force both terrifying and generous. She tests you. She pushes you beyond reason. And only when you stop asking, start acting, and dare to trust something deeper in yourself; then, maybe, she’ll help you.

This project is an exploration of that inner landscape. Through performance, photography, and symbolic imagery, I engage with discomfort, intuition, and the mythological layers that still shape us. The work does not aim to explain, but to evoke. To invite the viewer into their own forest, their own fire, and perhaps, their own meeting with Baba Yaga.