AUTOMATIC GALLERY
This work was created 15 years ago in a completely different local political setting: the post-Soviet context of Ukraine, where the degree of freedom of speech reflected the level of democracy in society and where memories of the totalitarian regime were still fresh. There was also a threat of democratic reforms being halted, as subsequent historical developments have shown.
Today, however, this work takes on entirely new nuances and extends far beyond its original frame of reference.
Sergiy Petlyuk (b. 1981) is a Ukrainian artist living and working between Paris and Lviv. He studied at the Lviv National Academy of Arts and the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris.
Petlyuk works across various media, with a primary focus on video art combined with sculptural installations. He creates immersive environments that incorporate video, sound, kinetic elements, and programming, placing the viewer as an active part of the work. Through these practices, he explores themes of control, violence, war, nationalism, institutional critique, and the manipulative power of mass media. His art investigates the complex relationship between the body’s sensitivity and the flows of imagination, memory, information, media, social order, and coexistence.
His works have been exhibited internationally at Cité Internationale des Arts (Paris), Saatchi Gallery (London), PinchukArtCentre (Kyiv), Ludwig Museum (Budapest), the Dayton Art Institute (Ohio, USA), among others.