Photos by Andrei Tchernikov
Installation view with Room III Rockin by Peter Vink and Totems, 2015, 15 charcoal drawings, each 200x150 cm
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 Amicitiae 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.
Lacie, 2016, charcoal on paper, 250x150 cm, Zip, 2001, and Floppy, 2001, charcoal on paper, each 200x150 cm
Zip, 2001, and Floppy, 2001, charcoal on paper, each 200x150 cm
Floppy, 2001, charcoal on paper, 200x150 cm, and Switch, 2025, charcoal on paper, 72x102 cm, framed
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Installation view with Room III Rockin by Peter Vink and Totems, 2015, 15 charcoal drawings, each 200x150 cm
Practice of Silence II, 2016-25, animation projection on charcoal drawing, 150x250 cm, sound
Transition, 2016, charcoal on paper, 150x500 cm, and Hard Drive I, 2017, charcoal on paper, 150x250 cm
