Located on the grassy road verge opposite the factory's main gate, the new installation features clay molds, bales of waste paper and a basin built from bricks filled with shredded currency mixed into waste paper pulp, illustrating how different types of paper are recycled.

"This is now a spot in Southeastern Estonia that has been touched by a group of artists, and one such spot, one such meaningless spot along the side of the road has been given meaning and form," Räpina Paper Factory CEO Kaur Palm said on Friday, the day of the opening. "We see this as the face [of our factory] – and a gateway for our guests."

In a nod to the fact that paper was historically made in Räpina from birchwood are 18 birch trees likewise newly planted by the installation – a firm commitment by the project's lead artist Ingrid Allik.

"They use only recycled waste paper here; they don't cut down any trees for their industry," Allik explained. "So I really wanted to plant birches to symbolize this: 'Let's let the birch trees grow and we'll make paper out of old recycled paper.'"

Räpina Paper Factory has been operating since 1734, making it the oldest consecutively operating factory in Estonia today, Tartu 2024 noted in a press release.

Last summer, Allik and colleagues from Estonia and Finland held an artist residency at the paper factory and Räpina Creative House, which gave rise to the installation opened last week.

"This new landmark in the urban space combines landscape design and elements created by the artists which are characteristic of the history of [papermaking] in Räpina," the description reads. "Through such actions as mixing clay and paper dust left over by the factory, constructing new elements out of the edges produced by the factory and exhibiting [bales] of scrap paper, Allik composes an environment which invites the viewer to discover, touch and even climb on different materials."

Click here to read more about "Birches Cubed" and the "ArCo3 – Artists in Collections, Communities and Collectives" project, part of the main program of the European Capital of Culture Tartu 2024.

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