Robert Irwin 'Light and Space (Kraftwerk Berlin)', 2021

Irwin is a versatile artist whose manifold oeuvre offers a unique perspective on innovation. Over his prolific, six-decade career, Irwin has become best known for site-conditioned artworks that use the effects of light to explore human perception and use of space. An early proponent of site-specific installations, he creates large-scale experiential works, using minimal means that challenge our perceptions and reimagine our environments.

For Light and Space (Kraftwerk Berlin) Irwin intervenes in the impressive, industrialist architecture of Kraftwerk Berlin, taking over the entire space to fully immerse visitors in his ongoing experiments with light and space.

A pioneer of Light and Space, a loosely affiliated art movement related to Minimalism and geometric abstraction that originated in Southern California in the 1960s, Irwin is one of the most prolific artists to have emerged from that scene. His Light and Space series was first conceived in 2007 and commonly features fluorescent light tubes arranged in rhythmic yet undecipherable abstract patterns on white walls with high finishes. Light and Space (Kraftwerk Berlin) uses blue fluorescent lights for the first time, in combination with the artist’s traditional white, positioned on a monumental freestanding wall measuring 16 x 16 metres. In another diversion from Irwin’s usual practice, Light and Space (Kraftwerk Berlin) is double-sided, making use of both sides of the freestanding wall.

As Director of LAS, Bettina Kames, has said:

‘Our programme enables artists to realise their most ambitious artworks, so I’m thrilled that Light and Space (Kraftwerk Berlin) will be Robert Irwin’s largest project in Europe. Radical and forward-thinking, Irwin’s interdisciplinary practice – collaborating with everyone from James Turrell to NASA – chimes with LAS’s commitment to projects that intersect art, technology and science. We are also dedicated to making art accessible to all and Irwin’s experience-based approach – he pioneered the site-specific installations that are now so familiar – makes his work particularly approachable and transformative.’