Sergiy Petlyuk / / Сергій Петлюк

AND WHO?..

2022

Multimedia installation

"And who? allowed you to live beautifully." A photo with such an expression, written with a spray can, as if on the wall of a house in Bucha spread on social media in the fi­rst weeks of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the Russian army. Then it turned out that the photo came from russia and had a longer history, dating back to 2016. But the phrase itself has become a winged expression, describing the barbaric seizure of territory, the marauding and destruction of other people's property. In this expression, envy is intertwined with hatred and anger.

With this phrase, which is a kind of manifesto symbolizing the split of mentalities and worldviews, russia and its citizens are bombing peaceful cities, killing innocent people, destroying infrastructure and looting everything that can be robbed.

This multimedia installation is based on LED panels of varying length, on which a single russian phrase in red letters runs in loop: "And who? allowed you to live beautifully" («А кто? разрешил вам красиво жить»)
The panels are mounted at some angle to the ground, visually imitating artillery shots.