Vinca Petersen

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Make Social Honey – A Collective Search for JOY, installation view, Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art, Sunderland, UK, 2022.

Biography

 

Since the 1990s, Vinca Petersen's work has remained an authentic voice of European counterculture, providing diaristic windows onto alternative spaces and lifestyles. A multidisciplinary artist who works in the area of social practice, Petersen's works emerge from a deep social and political engagement with underrepresented communities, giving them a voice and recognition. Her photographic oeuvre captures a period spanning 1990-2004, documenting the artist’s experiences as part of the free party and traveller community. The images juxtapose the sense of escapism and euphoria of this unique cultural moment with the oppressive political climate which outlawed the lifestyles of those responsible for Britain’s rave scene. As well as archiving thousands of photographic images, Petersen has attempted to document a way of life: its flyers, posters and clothes; her work constitutes an archive that records the techno-fuelled raves and lives of the travellers who organised them, but also a creative response to breaking barriers between individuals. 

 
Vinca Petersen’s (b.1973) recent solo exhibitions include No System Originals, Martin Parr Foundation, Bristol, UK (2024); Part II, Northern Gallery of Contemporary Art, Sunderland, UK (2024); Me, Us and Dogs, Edel Assanti, London, UK (2023); Make Social Honey - A Collective Search for Joy, Northern Gallery of Contemporary Art, Sunderland, UK (2022); Raves and Riots, Edel Assanti, London, UK. Selected group exhibitions include Energy: Sparks from the Collection, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK (2023); Techno Worlds, Goethe Institute, Ex-Fabrica de Harina, Mexico City, Mexico; SUBTE, Montevideo, Uruguay; Museu Da Imagem E Do Som, Sao Paulo, Brazil (2023); Techno Worlds, Goethe-Institut, Los Angeles, USA (2022); Sweet Harmony: Out of the Underground, Het HEM, Amsterdam, The Netherlands (2022); It’s a Rave Dave, Giant Gallery, Bournemouth, UK (2021); Night Fever: Designing Club Culture, V&A Dundee, Dundee, UK (2021); Rave, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK (2019); Seaside Photographed, Turner Contemporary, Margate, UK (2019); Diaristic Books, Turner Contemporary, London, UK (2019). Her work is in several public collections including The Arts Council Collection, London, UK; National Portrait Gallery, London, UK; The Monsoon Collection, London, UK; Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK. Vinca Petersen (b. 1973) lives on the Isle of Skye.
 

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Bibliography
Vinca Petersen: New Experiments in Collectivity by Alistair Robinson
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