Papercuts is an event presenting art projects realized in the form of a publication by students from the Academy of Fine Arts, Aalto Arts and Estonian Academy of Arts. The aim of the initiative is to encourage students to explore the different forms that publications could take.

Papercuts consists of three elements: two commissioned works by Xiao Zhiyu and Shia Conlon, a spatial installation by Essi Immonen and a platform for selling and displaying a selection of publications.

Papercuts is organised by Chih Tung Lin and Riikka Thitz. The project is part of their studies in the Praxis Master’s Programme in Exhibition Studies in the Academy of Fine Arts.

Xiao Zhiyu and Shia Conlon’s projects were submitted through an open call and selected by a jury made up of Ria Andrews (Praxis), Jonni Korhonen (Praxis), and Timo Vaittinen (Rooftop Press, SIC).

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Papercuts commissions

Cowboy of Time by Shia Conlon is a small book of poetry, drawing, photography, and an interactive map. Inside the book, there will be a handmade map of various points on Mustikkamaa where readers can go to follow a trail that will lead them on a journey through a dreamscape. In this dreamscape there are messages of trauma and codes in which possibilities of healing are presented. In Cowboy of Time, the reader is invited to slip into the psyche of the Cowboy, a time-travelling detective, and imagine a world where all you need is in dreams. Each book is limited to 8 copies and includes one original drawing and two limited edition photographic prints inside.

Occasional Memory by Xiao Zhiyu is a crowd of 150 notebooks, each containing a few pages of a short novel written by the artist himself. They are based on a personal journey to the desert and the imaginaries that obsessively haunted him. The crowd of handcrafted books, each with an identical cyanotype impressed over, invite the reader to carefully flip through all the pages in each book to search for the continuation of the story. It is an exercise in perpetual repetition and displacement.

Spatial installation

Essi Immonen

Publications

Miina Aho / Misa Asanuma / Sara Blosseville / Roy Boswell / Ragnar Elnyg / Johanna Etelävirta / Niklas Feinik / Romain Gabaud / Sofia Haapamäki / Verna Joki & Henrik Pathirane / Laura Kamppi / Aleksandra Kuokkanen / Liisa-Irmelen Liwata / João Marcelo Emediato / Tuuli Ojala / Essi Pellikka / Leena Saarinen / Arvid Staaf / Laura Tuomi / Mira Vornanen / Risako Yamanoi (collaboration with Hikari Nishida) / Wen Yi Choo
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Ante Nouveau Magazine

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Papercuts has been supported by the University of the Arts Helsinki / Academy of Fine Arts. The organisers would also like to thank Tuukka Kaila for the help and support in realizing the project.

Because of the current situation of Covid-19, the space can accommodate max. 6 persons at a time. We kindly ask guests to wear masks and keep a safe distance to others.

Please note that we accept payments by MobilePay. Small cash payments are also possible.