Potato Curator

Paper Researchers' Workshop and Exhibition 2024  

There were times when I needed to call you a potato.

 Paper Researchers held gatherings in 2024 at Seoul Reading Room and Euljiro OF, and presented regular exhibitions at 00 of 00 and Sohyunmun. Each program is a fragment of collective thought—curious and sincere—exploring the subtle (mis)alignments between conditions and typical events observed in the art ecosystem. By continuously (and loosely) weaving together scattered pieces and collected paper fragments around chosen themes, Paper Researchers cultivate a collaborative practice where ‘interest’ begins to take root and grow.

Paper Researchers' regular workshop take place at a pre-set time chosen by the group, where invited participants come together to talk freely about any topic—and in doing so, study paper-side. The paper materials collected so far include leaflets, pamphlets, brochures, and catalogues—objects with many names, often used in familiar, habitual ways. But sometimes, these papers break away from those routines, riding a freer breeze into the future, leaving the past behind, and waiting for someone new to find them. At these gatherings, conversations look toward tomorrow. They happen where different points of view meet, and where one person’s ideas become hypotheses tested together. In each session, a facilitator invites all participants to speak, helping everyone take part in what we call a ‘conversation-as-event.’ The paper-side exhibition follows these gatherings. It continues the traces left by many people, becoming another round of collective inquiry. In a way, it prepares for an ‘exhibition after the exhibition’—a next step. Through casual or careful gestures, each participant brings an image into language. And in those personal expressions, we search for a quiet kind of hope. Hope appears gently—and just as gently, it disappears.

The Seoul Reading Room workshop “Crows and Peacocks” features a temporary display of materials collected by researcher Park Jaeyong from the 2022 and 2024 Venice Biennale and the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale. The collection includes paper materials, booklets, and music records. Visitors can view these items freely or take part in organizing them into a digital archive. Between two reading-and-discussion sessions and one listening-and-discussion music session, participants are invited to engage in both quiet reflection and shared conversation. As languages gathered in one place travel to another and something new is (re)created, we listen closely to the voices of crows—birds decorating their bodies with colorful feathers like peacocks. At Café Donggam, located downstairs from the Seoul Reading Room, visitors can also listen to music records produced during the Venice Biennale. These sessions take place at set times on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays.

The Euljiro OF workshop “High-Class Vase, Severed Hand” focuses on around 1,700 pieces of printed materials collected by researcher Kim Haechan alone between the Paper Researchers’ 2nd and 3rd regular workshop. Former participants from the first and second cohorts of the Paper Researchers take turns leading each session of the 3rd workshop. Participants are free to organize the paper fragments in simpler or more complex ways than before. They can write or draw on them, crumple or tear them, or simply look at them—or leave many new marks behind. This gathering takes place in a temporary and informal space (Euljiro OF) where, at times, something like a flower arrangement is made, and at other times, the vase itself is shattered.

The exhibition The Cuckoo That Cries Coo-Coo at 00 of 00 revisits traces from previous Paper Researchers’ exhibitions—Let’s Look Again at Paper Fragments(Gallery 0, 2021) and Calling, Culling(d/p, 2022). It highlights the research notes left on paper by 33 researchers from the first and second cohorts, as well as anonymous participants. In the exhibition space, piles of printed matter—both from real and imaginary exhibitions—are displayed together. Visitors are not just viewers but co-creators: anyone can bring their own paper fragment and add it to this shared ‘nest’. Through this ongoing ‘cuckoo play’, the form of the exhibition keeps changing.

The exhibition The World’s Smallest Curator Award at Sohyunmun highlights the work of 51 participants from the 3rd regular workshop of the Paper Researchers, held at Euljiro OF. Rather than displaying all 1,700 original printed materials collected by the research group, the exhibition focuses on the traces each participant left behind—their thoughts, edits, and gestures. These different elements are layered together in the exhibition space: the original paper fragments act as the first layer, the participants’ markings and responses as the second, and the curatorial decisions that bring them together as the third. These three layers intersect and coexist in one shared space. Instead of a traditional curatorial statement, the exhibition opens with 21 sentences excerpted directly from the printed materials themselves. This self-referential method also serves as a quiet tribute to fellow practitioners working in different fields yet living through the same moment in time.

 While someone here gazes quietly at yesterday and tomorrow, reflecting on themselves and their peers, the simple act of layering and unfolding pages becomes the still surface of an ocean—gently reflecting the starlight of other gatherings across the sea. Those who gather in this space are like voyagers, singing impermanent songs and tracing the waves. In this moment, you too may find yourself whispering dreams of traveling far, together.

(Last updated: July 28, 2024)