Monuments of Memory

Monuments of Memory

Duo show with Irina Birger and Peter Vink

The exhibition presents Irina Birger’s large-scale charcoal drawings alongside Peter Vink’s site-specific light installation.

Since 1998 Birger worked on charcoal drawings depicting everyday objects and technological devices—floppy disks, switches, data cables, hard drives—each dramatically isolated and magnified. Through this transformation, these once-familiar objects take on new, almost human qualities. Cables morph into totems, spiritual figures, and sacred artifacts of an imagined community. Enlarged hard drives resemble mausoleums or libraries, evoking digital graveyards where data is preserved—perhaps indefinitely, perhaps not. A selection of these works will be presented in Monuments of Memory.
For this exhibition, Vink creates a site-specific artwork that responds to the context of the event. His work interacts with both the physical and conceptual elements of the Arti et Amicitiae building, establishing a dynamic dialogue with its surroundings. His precisely engineered light installations redefine space, engaging with architecture and perception. His artwork this time will playfully respond to his own tendency toward minimalism in the context of Arti et Amicitae's surrounding environment.
Together, Birger and Vink create a striking contrast of darkness and light, intuition and precision, and micro and macro universes. Their works complement and challenge one another, forming a powerful reflection on how we perceive, interact with, and remember the world—both physically and digitally.

Bio Irina Birger
Irina Birger was born in Moscow and lived in Serbia as a teenager. She received a BFA from the Bezalel Academy of Fine Art and Design in Jerusalem and an MFA from the Sandberg Institute in Amsterdam where she is currently based.

Growing up in the Soviet Union, Irina experienced the powerful mechanisms of propaganda that repressed independent thought and inquiry. Its methods were not just practical, but also extremely visual. Social Realist style and Stalinist Imperial architecture greatly influenced her artistic development. Their monumental arrangements inspire admiration, humility, and wonder, similar to the visual impact of the sacred formations. As a result, she is strongly interested in the visual strategies and formal principles of different religions and cults, and incorporates them in her work. Central symmetry, patterns, slogans, and monumental approach often appear in her work.
 
Irina exhibited a.o. in Israel Museum (IL), Mediamatic (NL), W139 (NL), Apexart (US), the Israeli Centre for Digital Art (IL), Today Art Museum (CN), Redtory (CN), Drawing Center Diepenheim (NL), Nieuw Dakota (NL), Viborg Kunsthal (DK), AMNUA (CN), Q21 (AT), Kunsthal Kade (NL) and Museum Tot Zover (NL).

Bio Peter Vink
Peter Vink (De Bilt, 1974) graduated from the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in 2001. Since then, he has made a name for himself as an artist specializing in (sometimes highly large-scale) light installations that always serve as an addition to—or a translation of—the specific site. His work is architectural, minimalist, and innovative, always reflecting the concept of locus genii, the 'spirit of a place.'
Vink's work has been showcased in the Netherlands, including at the Gouden Bocht during the Amsterdam Light Festival 2023,  Wapenveld during the IJsselbiënnale 2021, and as a permanent installation at the Hengelo City Hall (2020). Outside the Netherlands, he frequently exhibits in Germany and China.