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 has worked on charcoal drawings of everyday and technological objects—floppy disks, switches, data cables, hard drives—each dramatically isolated and magnified. Through this transformation, these once-familiar items take on new, almost human qualities. Cables become totems or sacred artifacts of imagined rituals, while enlarged hard drives resemble mausoleums or libraries—graveyards where data is preserved, perhaps indefinitely. Birger’s practice explores the human desire for connection, our evolving physicality over time, and the systems of power we construct and sustain. By using charcoal—the earliest drawing medium, rooted in prehistoric cave art—she bridges ancient mark-making with contemporary technologies of information transfer. This exhibition offers a retrospective view of her charcoal work, including drawings shown to the public for the first time.

For this exhibition, Vink is creating the monumental light sculpture ‘Room III Rockin’ which is based on the dimensions of the glass ceiling of gallery space 3. The grid of this ceiling is reflected in the artwork created especially for this show. The pattern of bright white LED lines is irregularly interrupted by colour and sound that break the rigid framework like noise. This is an intuitive response from the artist who often leans towards minimalism in his work. Vink playfully tries to question his own dogmatic pattern of thinking. In addition, the surrounding area plays a role: Arti et Amicitae is located on the Rokin, a street known as “Rockin” around 1564. From that perspective, the artwork also functions as an imaginary stage for a concert, on which echoes from the past and present merge.

Together, Birger and Vink create a compelling dialogue between darkness and light, intuition and structure, micro and macro. Their works contrast and complement each other, forming a powerful reflection on how we perceive, process, and preserve our 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.

Birger exhibited a.o. in Israel Museum (IL), Tel Aviv Museum (IL), Haifa Museum of Art (IL), Mediamatic (NL), W139 (NL), Apexart (US), the Israeli Centre for Digital Art (IL), Today Art Museum (CN), Redtory (CN), Preview Berlin Art Fair (DE), Blue Oyster Art Project Space (NZ), Drawing Center Diepenheim (NL), Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam (NL), Kabinet T (CZ), Nieuw Dakota (NL), Amsterdam Drawing (NL), Viborg Kunsthal (DK), AMNUA (CN), Q21 (AT), Het Hem (NL), 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 exhibited a.o. W139 (NL), CBK Dordrecht (NL), KIK Kolderveen (NL), de Fabriek (NL). Kunsthuis SYB (NL), Platform China (CN), VHDG (NL), AM Art Space (CN)), Space Station 65 (UK), DordtYart (NL), Art Rotterdam (NL), 21st Century Minsheng Museum (CN), Concordia (NL), DISKURS (DE), Aquabit Art (DE). Big Art (NL), IJsselbiënalle (NL), Lachenmann Art (DE), Centre for international light Art (DE), ADHOC (DE) Burgerweeshuis BPD (NL), Hilbertraum (DE), Polderlicht (NL), Amsterdam Light festival (NL), IlightU (NL), Hi-Lo (NL).