The Paper Monument for the Paperless gives a public face to undocumented people by pasting their portraits up around Europe’s city streets.

The Paper Monument for the Paperless is not much like many other monuments. Whereas your typical monument tends to remain fixed in one place and fairly limited in its size and scope, the Paper Monument is distributed across long distances and it’s been allowed to grow steadily over time. For this reason, its meaning has also remained more open to interpretation, and its impact much more unpredictable. It is, in short, a living monument.

[tttgallery id=”632″]

No choice but to live on the streets

Comprising a series of 60 black and white woodcut portraits of undocumented refugees, it traces its origins to a three-year-long collective artistic project initiated in 2013 by social artist Domenique Himmelsbach de Vries and the Dutch-based refugee collective We Are Here. While this was a couple of years before the words “refugee crisis” hit the headlines, there were already many people residing in the Netherlands (and other European countries), without papers and therefore without access to work, social housing or welfare, stuck in a brutally impersonal bureaucratic regime and almost entirely reliant on the charity of others, with many with left no choice but to live on the streets.

More than simply numbers

In response to this situation, We Are Here invited Himmelsbach to organize a workshop to come up with projects that would enhance their visibility in the public sphere. At the same time, they also identified a clear need to establish a safe and friendly atmosphere in which the members of the collective could keep themselves occupied, be social and active and maybe even tell their life stories. An idea emerged to make portraits of them in these moments, when their humanity was temporarily returned to them and they were finally treated as more than simply numbers in a database.

International activist tool

Three years later, Himmelsbach secured support from the Europe by People project to have 31 of the portraits printed in a special print run of 6000 copies. This changed the scope of the project dramatically as it meant that the portraits could be circulated far and wide. Since then, activists from around Europe have ordered sets of the posters: from Madrid, to Krakow and Heidelberg and even Boston in the U.S. In Himmelsbach’s own words “the Paper Monument finally became a real international activist tool”.

Next up, the artist plans to issue the prints in a collector’s item series, bound in a book or as a leporello (a foldable accordion-shaped book), with the aim of selling them to public art collections and using the proceeds to finance gluing and pasting the portraits through the cities of these institutions: “So, the institutions of our countries will also symbolically accept these people”.

A Story that should be told

Meanwhile, Himmelsbach also estimates that he’s still got around 1000 newspapers (that’s 16,000 posters) left to distribute. “The project will not stop before these are all spread”, he said, adding that “this is quite a burden”. When asked about why he has stuck with the project all this time, Himmelsbach explained that he sees the project “as a story that should be told… even though it’s already been going for a long time, I still feel responsible for spreading it.”

Returning to this idea of a living monument, it’s fitting (and vital) that this monument is kept alive. Since undocumented people still continue to be excluded from our public life, they deserve nothing less than a monument whose very purpose is “to give them a public face.”

_

If you’re interested in spreading the Paper Monument in your locale, contact info@himmelsbach.nl.

The Dyck Castle Trust and the European Garden Heritage Network (EGHN) awarded the 6. European Garden Prize to four gardens and parks in France, Germany and Sweden.

[tttgallery template=”content-slider”]

The Herrenhäuser Gärten in Hannover, Germany, won in the category “Best Development of a historic Park or Garden”. The jury recognized the effort of linking the landscape architecture of the baroque complex with events and exhibitions, just as in the days of electress Sophia (1630-1714), who had the gardens created. The concept doubled the number of visitors within a short period of time.

The category “Temporary Park or Garden” was won by the Martin Luther King Park in Paris, France. The former train and storage space was transformed into an ecological yet exciting park for visitors. A sustainable water system enabled a wetland in the park, the energy for the water pumps is provided by wind energy plants.

The Award for “Large-Scale Green Networks and Development Concepts” went to “Green Malmö”. Since the regional economic crisis in the 1980s the city developed the landscape of the city, to encourage the citizens of the city. Historic parks were reconditioned, several playgrounds made the city more child-friendly. Skate-arenas gave teenagers their own space. The concept worked, Malmö is now one of the most popular regions in Sweden.

The Hermannshof in Weinheim, Germany, won a special award. The garden is open to the public and one of the best examples for the “New German Style”, that uses perennial plants and grass and arranges them in a natural way. “To win this award as a small garden with competitors as well-known as these is a special honor. I hope the European Garden Prize will put the spotlight back on which plants are used and why, because that has nearly vanished from landscape architecture”, says Cassian Schmidt.

The EGHN was founded in 2003 and is working with 170 partners in 12 countries. The European Garden Prize is awarded to projects with a pioneer spirit.

6. European Garden Prize: Finalists and winners

Best Development of a historic Park or Garden: Herrenhäuser Gärten Hannover, Germany (Winner), Parco Gardino Sigurtà, Valeggio sul Mincio, Italy (Finalist), Painshill Park, Cobham, Great Britain (Finalist)

Temporary Park or Garden: Martin Luther King Park Paris, France (Winner), Bosco della Ragnaia, San Giovanni d’Asso, Italy (Finalist), Etar de Alcântra, Lisbon, Portugal (Finalist)

Large-Scale Green Networks and Development Concepts: Green Malmö, Sweden

Special Award:  Schau- und Sichtungsgarten Hermannshof Weinheim, Germany