At some point I understood what paper collage really is (and it wasn't what I thought)
- Paola Montanaro
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
When I started making collages, I thought I had it all figured out.
Paper, scissors, pictures. Cut, glue, compose.
End.
Then, at some point, something stopped working.
It wasn't just a matter of technique
At first, collage seemed simple to me: taking different elements and putting them together.
But the further I went, the more I realized that it wasn't enough.
The images were there. The composition too.
Yet something was missing.
That's where I understood what paper collage really is.
Paper collage is not just an artistic technique.
It's not "gluing pieces of paper together."
It's working with elements that already have a meaning before even entering the work.
A newspaper clipping, a word, a photograph: they are never neutral.
They carry with them a context, a time, a memory.
And the point isn't to use them. It's to decide how to get them to talk to each other .
The problem is not what you use, but what you choose
You can have all the materials in the world:
magazines
newspapers
recycled paper
But the collage doesn't start there.
It comes from a selection.
What you keep and what you discard matters much more than what you glue.
When I really started to understand it
I think the transition happened when I started working in cinema.
That's where things got complicated (as I explained in the previous post).
Because I wasn't just using images anymore.
I was using:
shared imaginaries
cultural references
already strong meanings
And I could no longer treat them as “just any material.”
Paper collage vs. “gluing things together”
The difference is subtle, but it changes everything.
“Gluing things”:
it's decorative
it's immediate
it works on the surface
Paper collage:
it's construction
it is a relationship between elements
it is meant
It's not what you put on, it's why you put it on
♻️ And paper is never just paper
I often use recycled paper.
Not just for an aesthetic choice.
But because I'm interested in working with something that already exists, that has already had a function, and that can be transformed.
For me, collage is also this: taking something existing and moving it into another context.
So, what is paper collage really?
If I had to say it today, simply:
Paper collage is an artistic technique that uses paper and printed materials to construct images through selection, composition, and meaning.
But above all:
it's a way of thinking in fragments
👀 And from there on everything changes
When you start to see it like this:
no more randomly choosing images
you start reading what you use
And that's where the collage stops being simple and starts becoming yours.
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