“Paper” is not only a carrier of texts and images, but also an invisible map of memory, migration, and cultural identity. As one of the commemorative projects marking the 20th anniversary of the Festival Croisements, We Are Paper, co-curated by Post-flamand Culture and Dianshi Culture, and originating from the exhibition series initiated at the ADM Art & Project space in France, takes contemporary paper-based art as its medium. It brings together the creative practices of Chinese and French artists spanning nearly a century, constructing a fluid visual lineage between history and the present.

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The exhibition begins with the historical legacy of Atelier 17, a renowned printmaking studio in Paris, tracing the generation, translation, and regeneration of paper-based creation across different cultural contexts. It reveals how paper has been continuously reshaped and reactivated through technology, concepts, and cultural identity.

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The exhibition unfolds through five thematic sections: “The Studio,” “The Construction of Landscape,” “The Evocation of Images,” “Borderless Painting,” and “Writing and Trace.” These sections explore the multiple roles of paper in contemporary art—both as a medium of technical inheritance and as a generative site of psychological landscapes, as well as an open structure carrying individual experiences and the spirit of the times. From experimental explorations in modern printmaking to the cross-cultural practices of Chinese artists in France, and from public art projects involving youth and children, the exhibition collectively constructs an intergenerational and cross-regional space for artistic dialogue.

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As a cultural project integrating academic research, public education, and youth exchange, We Are Paper not only presents artworks but also invites audiences to re-enter the experience of “paper” through workshops, lectures, and public initiatives such as the “Sino-French Children’s Paper Project.” Between fragility and resilience, between personal memory and historical narrative, it reconsiders the relationship between humans and images, and between humanity and the world.

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The project has already been successfully presented at the ADM Art Space in Versailles, France, and will next be officially exhibited at the Hongchang Art Museum in Harbin, China, as part of a Sino-French cultural exchange program. Subsequently, as an important extension project within the framework of the Festival Croisements, the exhibition will tour across Northeast China, continuing to activate artistic dialogue in different urban contexts and expanding the public significance and cross-cultural connections of paper-based art in contemporary culture.

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Along this fluid exhibition journey, “paper” is no longer merely a medium, but a constantly rewritten, translated, and reproduced cultural site—where we not only view the world on paper, but also become reflections of one another within it.