Sculptor Maxim Petrul: The Power of Starting with ‘I’
Sculptor Maxim Petrul: The Power of Starting with ‘I’
In our latest interview, we had the pleasure of hosting the renowned Belarusian sculptor, Maxim Petrul. He shared fascinating insights and associations through the lens of his creative self.
A – Annushka
I’ve noticed that in life, there are names—female names in my case—that bring me luck. Annushka is one of them. Every Annushka I’ve met has been extraordinary! There was a special Annushka, and I’d like to send my greetings to her.
B – Entrance and Exit
Currently, I’m working on a sculpture titled ‘Entrance and Exit.’ This piece is created in the style of maximalism, a movement I champion and have promoted for many years. Through this work, I pose the question, ‘Is the exit where the entrance is?’ The preposition ‘In’ signifies a meaningful action or simply ‘Into’—inside.
L – Love, Ludmila
That’s my mother’s name, whom I love dearly. It’s as simple as that.
M – Maximalism, Maxim
Maximalism derives from the name Maxim. First, maximalism is an art movement that I founded. This artistic method opposes American conceptualism: minimalism. Its essence is to do as little as possible while saying as much as possible. My objects are geometric bodies transformed to such an extent that they become conceptual signs describing all meanings at once, revealing ‘that very Heideggerian truth.’ Second, it’s the name my mother gave me in honor of Maxim Bogdanovich. She is an artist, teacher, and writer who was fascinated by his work and published his poems. By the way, I was born a week later than him, also in December.
O – Om (Sound)
This is about my long-standing, artistic, and love stories. The letter, like the sound, is round and complete, just like a woman. I love this form and often use it in my works. It seems to me that this is the most curious and perfect letter in the alphabet. I would call it the infinite beginning or the initial infinity.
P – Petrul, Pi
Naturally, what associations can I have other than my surname and the number Pi—it’s part of my monogram. It has a long, complex history, but it’s a true part of me. Without ‘P,’ Petrul wouldn’t exist.
R – Purr
When you see the letter ‘R,’ you immediately recall this sound. It’s like a cat’s purring. I love feeling sounds, letting them pass through me. In Buddhist practices, there are entire concepts of singing not with vocal cords but with the soul.
U – Unfolded
This is the name of my sculpture located in the National Polotsk Historical and Cultural Museum-Reserve in the collection of the art gallery headed by Larisa Lysenko. She has assembled a magnificent collection not of the Russian Empire, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, or the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, but specifically of Belarusian art, particularly 21st-century art.
F – Fairy
There’s something loving, fairy-tale-like, fateful, and magical about this.
Ch – Human
And all the consequences that follow. Anthropological and biological phenomena, personality, and spirituality—a kind of file that carries information into this world, spreading and expanding it.
I
This is what it means to ‘be yourself’—this letter was the first I drew. Whether you like it or not, you must start with ‘I’; otherwise, nothing will ever happen or be achieved. It’s what compels each of us to create works of art, that is, what we use to find our ‘I.’ This is not just a letter but a socio-cultural phenomenon in the space of human civilization.
Author: Margarita Dorozhkina, photo from Maxim Petrul’s personal archive
