PaperPlanes II

For some, the airplane is a symbol of mindless overconsumption and for others, it’s a vessel of dreams. Who is allowed to fly and whose dreams must remain grounded?

PaperPlanes II is a poetic and political reflection on climate change, created by Pankaj Tiwari and Nick Verstand. It explores the relationship between the West and the Global South, exploring diverse realities, dreams, and emotions. A quest for a desirable future, away from oversimplified narratives.

The audience is surrounded by 15,000 paper planes, folded by Pankaj over a year and a half. They symbolize the 15.000 euros required from non-EU citizens to be able to apply for a European student visa. PaperPlanes II confronts the ethics of flying in a globalised world, and questions capitalist conceptions of environmental justice through installation, storytelling, poetic reflections, and experimental sound.

Pankaj Tiwari is an interdisciplinary artist and curator from Balrampur, India currently based in Amsterdam. His works bring Eastern perspectives into the Western discourse on sociopolitical issues. He works with the ideas of and around duration, repetition, labor, and time.

Nick Verstand is a contemporary artist researching human perception through spatial audiovisual compositions. His autonomous installations and live performances investigate the frontier between the material and the immaterial and are created through collaborative design processes aimed at breaking down social boundaries.