AUTOMATIC GALLERY
A curved, arc-like structure is suspended in space, with LED panels attached to its underside. Fragments of text scroll slowly across the panels as a moving ticker; they can be seen and tentatively read only through their reflection in a mirrored surface formed by water poured into various vessels placed on the ground beneath the arc.
In a state of temporal and existential uncertainty – an 'in-between' condition in which linear narratives collapse; a space between 'before' and 'after', where the anticipated 'after' is postponed indefinitely and becomes a way of life – in this stretched present where uncertainty becomes structural and catastrophe becomes background noise, (self-)soothing takes strange forms that are seemingly necessary yet deeply disorienting.
The text within the reflections consists of banal, reassuring phrases that are perceived as either a glitch or a meaningless mantra.
Everything is under control
The situation is stable
Nothing bad is happening
Nothing serious
We will get used to this
This is temporary
Stay where you are
This will pass soon
There is no reason to worry
It is safe here now
Please remain where you are
Etc.
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.