Entering the Liminal
An exhibition about life within Turkic-Tatar mythology
When people gather in national diasporas, they inevitably enter a borderland — a liminal state. Physically present on foreign soil, they strive to recreate a sense of home through social rituals: gatherings, celebrations, traditions. This “home” is always different from the real one — idealized, tinged with nostalgia, built on a longing for something shared.
This feeling is especially familiar to peoples without a state of their own, or whose lands became part of another. The sense of liminality can follow them for life, even without emigration.
For someone from a diaspora, home often exists only in the mind. And they place themselves there, too. Such a person becomes a being of the liminal space.
In the mythologies of the Tatars, Bashkirs, and Chuvash — Turkic-speaking peoples of the Volga–Ural region, liminal spaces are inhabited by strange, cunning, and wondrous beings: helpers, villains, or absolute forces.
We invite you to enter this space.
To listen.
To look around.
What do you see?
Who are you here?
Who is beside you?
What is happening?