Painting the return from war

Yana Unychenko launched this project – perhaps the most difficult and painful for her – a year ago. She was to paint war in a way that could leave nobody indifferent. The artist wanted nothing bloody and horrible – she only wanted something touching, such as a ruined bridge, an amulet gripped in hand, a road to the Luhansk region, a tear in the eye, and a field of sunflowers which nobody gathers because there are mines there. It was going to be a big composition. Scaffolding had to be put up for the artist to be able to work. But Unychenko did not finish the picture and left a small part unpainted. It was a special one for her.

Yana comes from a small village in Luhansk oblast near the border with Russia. She moved to Zdolbuniv (near Rivne) three years ago. In this period the artist, a person with limited physical abilities, has carried out several art projects. Oleh Tyshchenko, director of the Zdolbuniv Museum of Local History, once suggested that she paint a picture on the ATO hall’s wall. He wanted the atmosphere of today’s Donbas to be reproduced by a person who was born and raised there so that one could feel her attitude to the tragedy. This perplexed Yana. At first she even wanted to refuse, but then she began to look at ATO photographs, listen to music, and conjure up themes. Now the artist is finishing the last of them.

“This unfinished fragment was special for me. It shows a woman hugging a man. It is an amulet of sorts for a soldier. One can interpret differently what is going on – she is seeing him off, or, on the contrary, he is coming back. I still think it is a homecoming,” the artist explains. “Farther on, you can see a ruined building and a lost toy as a symbol of ruination. And a hugging couple against this background… It is quite a big picture. Before doing this composition, I looked through a lot of photographs and watched my inner images that were emerging when I was thinking about war. Then I put it all together.”

It was rather difficult to begin this work. Yana confesses that it is much easier now, but the atmosphere of the museum is still holding her tight, for it displays portraits of the young men who will never come home from war and these soldiers’ belongings which their parents handed over to the museum.

“It is also the theme of Luhansk oblast where my parents and relatives live. It is the home I left. But, meanwhile, Zdolbuniv has become my second home. I love it very much. I went to the Luhansk region a few months ago. The atmosphere remains the same there. Hostilities are going on, and people have a different world-view. They are saying Ukraine does not just exist. You can mingle with the people calmly, without conflicts, but when you hear this, you feel vexed and depressed,” Unychenko says. “Zdolbuniv gave me a birthday present – a tour of Ukraine’s cities. I traveled visiting temples, castles, caves, and other amazing places. When you see this, you understand how beautiful Ukraine is. If the people who cried out ‘Russia!’ saw at least a fraction of what opened up to me, I think they would change their mind.”