Laura Cemin: Paper notes and pinecones

I say something as my arms rest at the side of my torso, my fingertips brushing one another – that’s all the movement there is. Microscopic and imperceptible even to myself.

They say we are more rational, concise, practical in our second language. I am just stiff, I am very stiff. Rigida/Impalata/Tesa(?). I can’t find a word that would convey such immobility.

In an attempt to rediscover the lost gesticulation of her native language (Italian), Cemin looks at the process of adaptation that bodies undergo when moving to a different cultural and linguistic landscape. Paper notes and pinecones is a collective archive of movements, an instruction manual, a hybrid grammar of the foreign body.

A performance related to the exhibition will be presented at the HAM Gallery on June 8, 9, and 12. An open workshop related to the themes of the exhibition will be hosted in HAM hall on June 2.

Performance in collaboration with Chen Nadler, Daniela Pascual, Jenny Berger Myhre, and Tashi Iwaoka.

Laura Cemin (b. 1992) is an Italian artist currently living and working in Helsinki. Her work explores the choreographic power of language, and how language shapes the way we move and physically interact.

The exhibition is supported by Kone Foundation, Nordisk Kulturkontakt, Finnish Art Society, Italian Institute of Culture and Oriente Occidente. In 2024, the exhibitions at HAM gallery are supported by the Finnish Heritage Agency.

The artist extends her biggest thanks to Francesca Berti, Ilya Netyosov, Jessie Bullivant, Michael McCrea, Marko Odar, Roberta Segata, Valge Kuup and all the participants of previous workshops.