Arti et Amicitiae presents the duo show Monuments of Memory by Irina Birger and Peter Vink. The exhibition will open on Friday 9 May and will be on view during Amsterdam Art Week 2025. In this exhibition, Irina Birger presents large-scale charcoal drawings alongside Peter Vink’s 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.

Arti et Amicitiae is looking forward to welcoming you to the Monuments of Memory duo-show.

_{This exhibition will be running from May 9.}