This project is a camera-captured journey of a traditional Christmas star to its homeland - ethnic Ukrainian lands in Poland.
An artistic intervention as a dynamic remembrance and dedication to the events of the "Forced Population Transfer" in 1944 -1947 on the Polish - Ukrainian border, to the strength of community and the value of tradition.
By physically moving through important places in its own history, the ancient cultural symbol, the Christmas Star, is practically being subjectivized, coming to life, reflecting the human experience of generations and of us today, those whom it leads. The star becomes a surviving witness of the history of displacement and the struggle for its own cultural identity, interacting with the landscapes, memory, and events of 80 years ago, and at the same time with the contemporary Ukrainian internally displaced persons it meets on the Polish-Ukrainian border.
the village Mackowice in 1942 and, 2024 years.
The star, which is the main character of the journey, was made by star-maker Bohdan Novak, who now lives in Lviv region, an immigrant from the Polish village of Mackowice, 90% of whose population was Ukrainian until 1944. As part of the "population exchange" initiated by the Soviet authorities in 1944-1946, almost the entire village of Mackowice was relocated to the territory of Ukraine. In total, about 480 thousand Ukrainians were forcibly resettled from the territory of Poland in those years.
In the Soviet Union, Christmas celebrations were strictly prohibited, and the tradition of making unique huge (up to 3 meters in diameter) Christmas stars that existed exclusively in the village of Mackowice seemed to disappear for many years, until the 1980s, when Bohdan Novak first ventured into creating a Christmas star for his children. Since then, the tradition of star-making has gradually begun to revive among the community of former migrants and beyond, and the Mackowice star was included in the register of intangible cultural heritage of Ukraine in 2022.
In this story the symbol of Christmas and hope is now also turning into a symbol of the resilience of Ukrainian communities and traditions that have survived forced displacement and have not disappeared, becoming an image of displacement that does not break ties with home, but rather strengthens them.
In the project, the star, made by Bohdan, an exile in 1945, and me, an artist who became an internally displaced person in 2022, finds its way to its ethnic homeland, the village of Mackowice, where only the ruins of a church and an old Ukrainian cemetery remain of the village's Ukrainian history.
Together on this journey there are Ukrainian women, most of whom have now temporarily lost their landscapes and become displaced by the Russian war in Ukraine, all of whom met at the Narodnyi Ukraiński Dim in Przemyśl, a shelter and cultural centre for thousands of Ukrainians and refugees in a Polish border town with a complicated history.
Conceived in the early twentieth century by proactive Ukrainians in Przemyśl as a "temple of the restoration of Ukraine" the Narodnyi dim has recently been filled with life again, and reborn, just as the tradition of making Mackowice Stars has been revived. The star's path led it to this House, to the former almost destroyed centre of Ukrainian community, which in the turbulent 1930s never became a "temple," but is now developing into the cultural and social centre its creators envisioned more than 100 years ago.
The ruins of an old Ukrainian church and a cemetery in Mackowice village. Ukrainian women from different regions of Ukraine.
Narodnyi Dim in Przemyśl
The Star Journey project is an attempt to show how a seemingly stable and established traditional symbol can change and acquire new meanings. It can layer meanings on its base, like shells in the ocean, forming layer after layer of armour for the most valuable thing - the pearl in the inside.
Thus, the Symbol of the birth of God in a human body, of life and hope, both fragile and powerful, is being overlaid in the context of our nation's history, becoming a symbol of resilience, the strength of ties with the land and culture, and the traditions that intertwine the present with the past with a transparent and strong lace, forming an identity.
The symbol is woven into the tradition, and the tradition becomes a heritage that does not remain in the past but points to the future.
This project is not a longing for lost lands or even an encroachment on them now, but a story about accepting the fluidity of existence with all the intricate interweaving of tragic and happy events, a gentle manifesto for the power of communities and traditions, and a moving temporary memorial to the memory and history of the peoples and lands of the borderland.
The Syan River
"A star walks, it is not carried, it walks through the world.
And yet, it always finds its person"
Bohdan Novak, the starmaker
