Whispers of the Primeval Forest

What does Białowieża Primeval Forest whisper? Amid recent human pressures and the migration crisis, I explore its fragile ecosystem, spiritual ecology, ancient forest relicts, healing fungi, women’s healing traditions, local Slavic tales and my own roots.

Whispers of the Primeval Forest explores the spiritual ecology of Białowieża Primeval Forest (Puszcza Białowieska), one of Europe’s last ancient temperate woodlands, shaped by more than 12,000 years of ecological change. Located on the Polish-Belarusian border, the forest lies in a region historically connected to my own family roots, making this research also a personal search for connection and ancestral belonging.

Home to extraordinary biodiversity, the forest is a living world, a complex form of life comprising interconnected, ancient species of trees, fungi, animals, and unseen processes. Within its strictly protected areas, natural processes are largely left to unfold without human intervention. Since 2021, the migration crisis along the Polish-Belarusian border has brought an increased military presence and the construction of a border barrier that cuts through the heart of the forest, disrupting habitats, wounding animals, and influentially transforming some areas with invasive species of plants.

What does the Białowieża Primeval Forest whisper? How does it sense and adapt to human-induced changes? What stories, tales and secrets about the Białowieża Primeval Forest resonate within the local inhabitants and whisperers (women-healers)?

Through photography, film, sound recordings, archival research, and conversations with local scientists and traditional women healers, I explore the forest as a living network of relations, senses, and stories. I give particular attention to healing fungi, folk healing practices, and the knowledge carried by local women known as szeptuchy (whisperers). Rooted in scientific research but open to speculation, magical thinking, and mysticism, the project weaves together ecological observations, Slavic tales, local healing practices.

Moving between research and intuition, the project seeks to listen to the forest beyond what is immediately visible. It follows the traces of ancient woodland, the stories of its human and more-than-human inhabitants, and the healing practices that connect generations, plants, fungi, air molecules. In doing so, it becomes both an exploration of the forest’s spiritual ecology and a personal search for ancestral knowledge.

Whispers of the Primeval Forest is currently being developed by Ligia Popławska within the Art & Ecology research group of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp, in dialogue and collaboration with scientists from Białowieża Geobotanical Station (University of Warsaw), Białowieża Forest Research Institute, Mammal Research Institute (Polish Academy of Sciences) and Fungi Extract Bank (Bialystok University of Technology).