Press Release

Due to overwhelming success the 2012 Paper Biennial Rijswijk will be extended in Museum Rijswijk to 13 January 2013.

Constructing, folding, cutting and sculpting paper and cardboard, it can all be seen at the 2012 Paper Biennial. This exhibition in Museum Rijswijk's new extension will show just how much the amazing versatility of paper and cardboard can inspire artists!

Pillars of card, so elaborate you won't believe your eyes. Hundreds of layered, one-millimetre-thick cardboard sheets designed and generated on the computer. The digital architecture of Michael Hansmeyer takes him to the limits of both art and science.
A metropolis floating in space like a Fata Morgana; geometrical and resembling a computer circuit board. Dehumanised. The architectonic sculptures of thin card by Katsumi Hayakawa symbolise the isolation of human beings in the modern city.
Origami works with sculptural eloquence in two individual styles. A background in technology and a passion for paper are united in the geometrically folded creations of
Eric Gjerde. In his most recent work he experiments with paper produced by bacteria. In contrast the more organic objects folded by Georgia Gremouti, seem to grow like crystal formations.
A sense of the blues portrayed in paper and card. Peter Bes constructs life-size figures: groups of blues and soul singers, and of immigrants and migrant workers. Melancholy and imposing, they stand immortalised as if in a frozen frame of film.
Frits Achten spends years adding to his sculptures of papier mâché. They grow gradually like the nest of paper wasps or the outer skeleton of coral polyps, taking on organic shapes with sensual curves and hollows.
Papier mâché sculptures depicting hugely magnified parts of pistols and machine-guns made from newsprint – the bearer of bad news. Jacqueline Overberg uses this visual form of cultural critique to demonstrate the close relationship between beauty and violence.
From a distance the arresting works by Johnny Beerens look like realistic paintings of a magnified detail in the landscape. But at close range they become three-dimensional topographies, low reliefs in paper, created by pouring wet paper pulp over natural materials like boulders, branches or fence posts, which are then painted.
The Combat Paper Project is a series of workshops to assist American war veterans in reconciling their experiences of war. The paper on which their work is printed is made from their old combat uniforms.

Artists Museum Rijswijk: Frits Achten (the Netherlands), Marlies Adriaanse (the Netherlands), Sophie Arup (United Kingdom), Johnny Beerens (the Netherlands), Peter Bes (the Netherlands), Combat Paper Project (United States), Eric Gjerde (France), Georgia Gremouti (Greece), Michael Hansmeyer (Switzerland), Katsumi Hayakawa (Japan), Jacqueline Overberg (the Netherlands), Anne van de Pals (the Netherlands), Katrien Vogel (the Netherlands), Debra Weisberg (United States), Marleen van Wijngaarden (the Netherlands)

Opening times Museum Rijswijk: Tuesday - Sunday 11.00 - 17.00

In Museum Meermanno, The Hague the Papier Biennial ended on 2 December, 2012. The work of the partcipating artists can still be seen on the website of Museum Rijswijk: Laura Behar (Israel), Peter Collingridge|Apt Studio (United Kingdom), Jérome Corgier|Atelier Pariri (France), Ebon Heath (United States), Alicia Martin (Spain), Ros Rixon (United Kingdom).