In the Dimension of Liminality: Bucha and the Unfinished Story of Liubov Panchenko

Authors

Bosa Liubov

a Ph.D. in History, a senior research fellow at the Ukrainian Ethnological Centre Department of M. Rylskyi Institute of Art Studies, Folkloristics and Ethnology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (Kyiv, Ukraine).

ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5381-8151

Bosyi Oleksandr

a Ph.D. in History, an associate professor at the Art Studies and Art Education Department of Mykhailo Boichuk Kyiv State Academy of Decorative and Applied Arts and Design (Kyiv, Ukraine).

ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7774-8098

In the Dimension of Liminality: Bucha and the Unfinished Story of Liubov Panchenko

Abstract

The deep connection between the city, the fate and works of the talented artist Liubov Panchenko (1938–2022) is described in the article through the liminal dimension of the Bucha tragedy, caused by Russian aggression. Her undervalued artistic voice from previous times, in the context of loss and uncertainty, sounds particularly sharp. The artist’s heritage is reinterpreted as a symbol of the resilience of Ukrainian culture. The methodology based on the concepts of liminality by Arnold van Gennep and Victor Turner, including Turner’s notion of “social drama” is used in the study. The anthropological analysis of collected materials (results of the authors’ own fieldwork in Bucha (2024), individual published works, museum exhibitions in Kyiv and abroad devoted to the artist’s works) contributes to understanding the complex socio-cultural and symbolic processes in a time of crisis. The city of Bucha, marked by the bloody events of the Russian occupation in the spring of 2022, arises as an embodiment of the liminal state – a borderline space between destruction and revival, past and future, where customary social norms have been destroyed, and individual stories of loss are intertwined into collective trauma. In this context, the personal tragedy of Liubov Panchenko, her death from exhaustion under occupation, symbolizes the extreme vulnerability of the individual at the epicenter of liminal chaos. Bucha is considered in the article as a dual liminal space – simultaneously a suburb with an ambivalent identity and a territory of collective trauma seeking ways of recovery. The dynamics of verbal definitions of the city (“city-martyr”, “hero-city”, “city-memory”), reflecting the evolution of collective perception of the tragedy and the formation of a new identity, is analyzed. Particular attention in the article is paid to the study of Liubov Panchenko’s life and works in the context of her native village of Yablunka, which has become an integral part of Bucha in the 1990s. The influence of the local environment on her unique artistic style is considered. The paradox of the posthumous recognition of Panchenko’s talent is emphasized, and the reasons for the underestimation of her work during the Soviet period because of the ideological pressure on manifestations of national identity are revealed. Also the graphic and figurative language of Panchenko’s works is considered in the article through an anthropological lens. The features of Liubov Panchenko’s decorative compositions as a synthesis of folk traditions and individual vision, her masterful use of line and color planes, as well as the presence of traditional Ukrainian ornamental symbols and images, are analyzed. The public initiatives to commemorate Liubov Panchenko are analyzed in the final part and recommendations for the development of conceptual foundations and a visual identity of the urban environment based on her ornamental and decorative work are formulated. The prospects for integrating the artist’s creative heritage into the educational space of the city as a significant factor in the restoration of Bucha’s cultural heritage and a symbolic resource for community revitalization are substantiated.

Keywords

liminality, Bucha, Liubov Panchenko, Russian-Ukrainian War, cultural heritage, sixtiers, folk art, memory, restoration, identity, line in art.

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