Paper Theater takes its point of departure from the European paper theater of the nineteenth century, in which characters, scenery, and narratives were created through paper cut-outs. In this installation and performance, the exhibition space is transformed into a life-size theater, where migrants’ personal photographs and letters become material for a new narrative.
The work’s “actors” are created from enlarged cut-outs of wedding photographs and photographs from migrant women’s first years in Denmark. Following the structure of a classical fairytale, the narrative follows a young woman who enters an unfamiliar world, encounters problems and resistance, and is unable to act entirely independently. Her survival and progress depend on external forms of rescue and support, embodied in other people who take on the role of the “prince” or rescuer. Her desire for love, a better life, and legal security is thus shaped not only by personal aspirations, but also by the social and political systems on which her possibilities depend.
A central element of the work is its reference to the Danish theatrical tradition and Ej blot til lyst. By placing migrant narratives within a national cultural and theatrical framework, the work examines how national narratives are constructed, whom they represent, and who is positioned outside them.
Paper Theater thus explores the relationship between migration and national identity. It considers belonging not only as a matter of feeling at home, but also as access to cultural, social, and political communities. Migration challenges the idea of a fixed and singular national identity, while migrant narratives simultaneously contribute to transforming and reshaping it.
