Untitled Paper Airplane Machine

There is probably no other mode of transport that can simultaneously fascinate and disgust us as strongly as flying. Big airports are both like futuristic utopias and bleak shopping malls. But oh, the jolt that goes through you when the plane takes off: “I’m flying!” This is, of course, added by all sorts of superficial troubles: having to wake up early, your flight being postponed, dry air and poor food on board. Flying as such is losing its original charm. Due to rapid climate change, people are suffering from flight embarrassment, and short and long journeys are increasingly being viewed with contempt. However, even the pandemic could not change the situation and the polluting aviation sector was helped back on its feet with massive subsidies.

Johannes Säre has created a machine for the exhibition which folds and shoots paper planes incessantly. Thus we can see the wonders of flying with our own eyes every day at the City Gallery. To everyone’s disappointment, however, the machine doesn’t fold planes from recycled paper, paper waste of Tallinn Art House or the working documents of some ministry. Instead, the artist pointlessly flies brand new snow-white sheets of paper against the wall one after the other: whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!