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Paper short abstract

This paper explores how Slovenian folk singers negotiate authenticity both on stage within heritage institutions and through embodied ties to nature and place, revealing ecological imaginaries that connect humans, ancestors, and the more-than-human.

Paper long abstract

This paper examines how contemporary Slovenian folk singers in Slovenia negotiate authenticity through their interpretations of traditional songs, with particular attention to the symbolic and affective roles of nature and spatiality. Drawing on interviews and performance analysis, I show how singers conceptualize folk song not only as heritage, shaped by institutional frameworks and historical aesthetics, but also as a living medium that connects them to places, ancestors, and nonhuman environments.

While institutional guidelines often promote static and historically codified modes of singing, individual singers emphasize embodied, emotional, and spiritual experiences, locating authenticity in the resonance between voice, landscape, and memory. For these singers, authenticity is inseparable from ecological imaginaries: it emerges when songs are sung in specific landscapes or sacred spaces, where sound, place, and natural acoustics intertwine, and where singing is understood as mediating between humans, ancestors, and the more-than-human environment.

By situating these practices within broader debates on heritagisation and affective authenticity, I argue that Slovenian folk song interpretations highlight the paradox of authenticity: while heritage institutions canonize and stabilize forms, performers re-inscribe songs with ecological and existential meanings.