Irina Birger
The Book of Happiness and Sadness
Irina Birger
The Book of Happiness and Sadness
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All listed drawings are on paper, size 210 × 297 mm, and were made with different techniques: pencil, ink, acrylic, watercolor, oil pastel, and acrylic marker.
2 Forget Your Past, 2016 4 I Know, I Want, I Can, I See, I Remember, 2014 6 Faith, 2016 Frustrated, 2014 7 I Am Not Afraid to Be Bored, 2017 Happy, 2014 8 Individuality, 2016 10 Routine, 2017 12 Banality, 2017 14 Guilty, 2014 16 Mentally Unbalanced, 2016 18 Lack of Enthusiasm*, 2018 20 Morning Tears, 2014 22 Lonely, 2014 24 Reality, 2016 Wrong Decisions, 2016 25 Regrets, 2016 Numbly Jealous, 2017 26 Meaningless Sex, 2019 28 Loser, 2017 30 Daily Frustrations, 2017 32 Mind Body, 2014 34 Sexually Inactive, 2016 36 Her Him, 2014 38 My Life Is Not Better Than Yours but It’s Mine, 2016 40 Past, 2016 42 Personal Totems, 2016 Honesty Is My Enemy, 2016 43 Emotionless, 2017 My Own Ritual Club, 2016 44 Spiritual Cleansing, 2016 46 Purgation, 2016 48 Daily Magic, 2016 50 Love Yourself, 2016 52 Deterrence and Hubris*, 2018 54 Faith Mistrust, 2016 56 Hide and Seek, 2016 58 Focus, 2016 60 Revived, 2016 62 Long-Term Trust*, 2018
64 Raging Fires*, 2018 Diplomatic Crises*, 2018 65 Amateur Drone*, 2018 Disarmament Plan*, 2018 66 Betray, 2014 68 War Crime or Self-Defence*, 2018 70 Left’s Endless Misery*, 2018 72 Settler Terrorist*, 2018 Powerful Sanctions*, 2018 73 Confront Enemies*, 2018 Dead Include Teens*, 2018 74 Bloodstain Trust Act*, 2018 Latest Round of Aggression*, 2018 75 Humanitarian Relief*, 2018 New Settlement Homes*, 2018 76 Needless, 2014 78 Forgotten, 2014 80 Reasonable, 2014 82 You Are Here, 2014 Humiliated but Proud, 2016 83 Into the Void, 2016 High Expectations, 2016 84 Emotionless, 2016 Magical Thinking, 2014 85 Joy Pleasure, 2016 It’s Not the Very End, 2016 86 Now Or, 2016 88 Desire, 2014 90 Left Right, 2014 92 Restless, 2014 94 Obsession, 2010 96 Lonely, 2014 Passion, 2010 97 Overdose, 2010 Mechanical, 2014 98 Ruthless, 2014 100 And Me, 2014 102 Fed Up Truly, 2014 104 Timeless, 2016 106 One Time, Two Times, Three Times, 2016 108 Them They Us We Him Her Me, 2016 110 We, 2014
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112 You, 2014 114 Detox Your Mind, 2019 116 I Wonder Who You Are, 2014 118 Hopeless, 2014 120 Subjectivity, 2014 122 Live, 2014 124 No Matter What, 2014 126 Reality Hurts, 2012 128 Surrender, 2019 130 I Ego, 2014 132 Lightness, 2014 134 Soul Brain Stomach Heart, 2014 136 Pathetic Heroic Stoic, 2016 It’s Not About Likes, 2017 137 Primitive Intellectual, 2014 I Donno How Smart Is This, 2016 138 Let It Go, 2016 140 Him Her I Us We Me You, 2014 142 Self Sufficient, 2014 144 Heartbreaking Reasons*, 2018 146 Enemies and Allies*, 2018 Fucking Ugly, 2014 147 Happily Depressed, 2014 Shitty Artist with Shitty Ideas, 2018 148 Your Memory My Our, 2017 150 Last Fighters Against Occupation*, 2018 152 Thousand Thousand Hells*, 2018 154 Arrogant Leader*, 2018 Not Peace but Annexation*, 2018 155 Iron Dome*, 2018 Lethal Clashes*, 2018 156 Life and Death Are the Same*, 2018 Front cover: Look Inside and Smile, 2019 Back cover: Look Outside, 2014 Inside cover: Focus, 2014, 297 × 420 mm
*from 32 Days: Israeli Diary
Irina Birger Thinks Drawing is Important, 2010, video still.
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Irina Birger’s art is interwoven with her personal life. Her practice is based on intimate encounters with external instabilities, such as relationships, social gatherings and political events. Close self-observation and meticulous soul-searching are central to Birger’s approach, probing deep into the fabric of multiple social contexts. The experiences led her to develop different artistic personalities, which Birger has explored all of her life and which have inspired her work. Biographical landmarks of Birger’s ongoing search for emotional and intellectual happiness have defined a contrasting body of work, and influenced and enriched her artistic vocabulary. They molded the artist’s examination into the meaning of self-confidence, especially as a woman, as a female artist, as a female citizen—and, more generally, as a gendered body within the coordinates of time and space.
Born in 1972 into a family of Soviet intellectual elites, Irina Birger was raised in Brezhnev’s Moscow, with its monumental architecture, panoramic views, and its continuing attachment to ideology as form but no longer as the exclusive framework of existence. The period is outlined by the violence of the Prague Spring of 1968 until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991, and can be described as the collapse of the Soviet value system and the rise of social distrust—a time when uncertainty entered the private sphere. Birger belongs to a generation that feels no nostalgia for the Soviet Union’s former modus operandi. Her childhood witnessed the Afghan War (1979–1989), the death of three USSR leaders (L.I. Brezhnev, 1982; Y. V. Andropov 1984; K. U. Chernenko, 1985), and the Chernobyl disaster (1986). Conscious or unconscious of this environment, Birger grew up a quiet and withdrawn child who loved to draw more than anything, immersing herself in imaginary worlds.
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attempts to change her Russian citizenship into Israeli while adjusting to a new identity. In 1999, the artist decided not to stay in Israel. The second Intifada in 2000 and the victory of Ariel Sharon in the prime ministerial election hastened her departure. She applied for a Master’s program at the Sandberg Institute in 2001 and was immediately accepted. In 2002, Birger’s life in Amsterdam continued with her quest for wellbeing and happiness: meeting new people, applying for a Dutch passport, learning a new language, and trying on yet another identity.
Slimtarra, 2003, installation view. Extrapool, Nijmegen. Photo: Liron Lupu.
In 1987, Birger moved to Serbia with her mother, where she graduated from the High School of Design and then enrolled for a bachelor’s degree at the Academy of Applied Arts. Belgrade’s social scene at the end of the 1980s was a mixture of new wave, fashion and punk—the backdrop against which Birger became an artist and learned how to express herself as an individual and as a creator. When the Bosnian war unfolded in 1992, Serbia no longer held a future for an emerging artist, and Birger moved to Israel. At first she lived in a kibbutz, performing everyday community chores such as cooking and babysitting. Then, in 1993, she enrolled in a Bachelor’s program at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design and moved to Jerusalem. Specializing in drawing, Birger was confronted with the academy’s experimental approach. She threw herself into contemporary art to the point of disappointment, and started to question her agency as an artist. This challenging period was further complicated by financial difficulties and