Lviv Palace of Arts opens an exhibition called “Mamai unites Ukraine.” This is an interesting project under the curatorship of Orest Skop, Honored Art Worker and the chief Palace of Arts’ artist, who has been researching the topic for many years and is known as a prominent “mamaiologist” in Ukraine. This time the project involves artists from Ternopil area, who painted 18 Mamai portraits – one represents the whole Ternopil oblast (a conjoint one, so to speak), while 17 represent its diverse raions.
All Mamais are different, made in different techniques and coloration, but also share something in common: apart from traditional attributes that belong to the famous Cossack (a horse, sword, pistol, bag, and glass) they feature the most prominent raion’s landmarks, religious buildings or historical moments. Thus, Mykola Shevchuk from Terebovlia has created Mamai’s image from Mykhailo Boichuk, his famous countryman, also an artist – and behind his back are the landmarks from Terebovlia raion (the Zamkova Hill, the spiritual place of Zarvanytsia, and the ruins of Pidhora castle) supplemented with a fragment from The Harvest, Boichuk’s painting. Mamai’s bag looks like a palette, and the Cossack is holding a brush in his hand…
“The Cossack Mamai is practically a Ukrainian folk icon that was present at home of any conscious Ukrainian,” says Shevchuk. “It embodies all our national ideas, all our longing for freedom and for self-affirmation (both historical and national) – it always represented the Ukrainian spirit. Terebovlia region is known for many people famous in and out of Ukraine. Mykhailo Boichuk, our spiritual giant from Romanivka village, is one of them. He is a founder of Ukrainian monumental painting school, and that’s why I decided to portray him as Terebovlian Mamai.”
All Mamais form the map of Ternopil oblast, which is itself a peculiar one: it resembles a triangle with one side facing the east and the apex facing the west. The organizers of the project also think that such a map should be assembled for the whole country. After the exhibition in Lviv, the artwork will travel to Ternopil Art Museum, and then towards the east, to Mamai’s historical homeland. In the end, the paintings will be donated to Dniprodzerzhynsk Historical Museum. Eventually, a separate museum of fine and decorative art will be opened there, called “Cossack Mamai.”
The Mamais’ donation ceremony in Dniprodzerzhynsk will be held on May 30.
Photo by the author
