The video essay “Petukhov: petukhov” was created for the exhibition “Star Revenge” and is part of the installation of the same name. The work of Alek Petuk and Anna Pronina is built on the intersection of two subjects: the story of the artist Petukhov (Petuk), a native of Ukhta, whose childhood and youth occurred in the 1990–2000s, and the reconstruction of the popular legend about the death of the writer Petukhov.
The author returns to his hometown, communicates with friends, visits an abandoned village, where his father’s family originates. At the same time, the science fiction writer Petukhov is moving towards his life’s finale... He became famous at the end of the last century as the publisher of the newspaper “Voice of the Universe” and the author of large-circulation science fiction action films.
The similarity of the surnames of the writer and artist became the starting point for thinking about how such coincidences and projections influenced European ideas about the place and role of the individual in the world.
The authors of the film turn to the method of “materialistic dialectics of coincidences” by philosopher Yoel Regev. The practical development of the method is carried out by the Coincidental Institute, a transdisciplinary team to which Alec Petuk belongs. On the one hand, Petuk analyzes the deep post-Soviet trauma that influenced the work of his namesake. On the other hand, he seeks to clarify his own aspirations, which forced him to abandon his family profession and leave a prestigious job in order to engage in contemporary art.
