Black Folder is a book composed of several parts, gathered into one folder.
It was born from a time and place where different layers intertwine: stories, states of being, traces of the past. People came and went, leaving their marks. The forest here was once the seabed, the stones were mountains. Time and space are inseparable from the memory of this land.
I work on the shore of the Gulf of Finland as an observer and collector, allowing this place to pass through me. For me, it is deeply personal. My interest lies in origins, in the inner mental landscape, in the connection to roots.
The book came into being intuitively, and each element—bark, stones, fallen branches—became a layer of memory. It is both process and puzzle, a meditation on life and death, on the ever-changing states of nature. It reminds us that even symmetry carries imperfections, and it is precisely these that make a form alive. Paper, printing, irregularities—none of this is accidental. Everything speaks of the impermanence of living things.
For me, the book is a reminder that the bond between human beings and nature is woven into the cycle of universal transformations. Nature and place permeate our existence. My task is not to change them, but to listen, to receive, and to learn how to be part of this cycle.
The first part is an origami-book.
On its cover rests a birch branch more than a hundred years old, like a key that opens a hidden door. The paper is handmade, stained with ink. As the folds open one by one, a path slowly reveals itself, guided by the place. Inside are sixteen small, eight medium, four lesser, and two large sections. Each holds a secret, each unique, like nature itself. At the end lies a warrior’s mask — a symbol of transition, from traces to form, from fragments to wholeness. A journey of understanding life from within.
The second part consists of eight unique prints.
Each one was created from found natural artifacts, pressed with ink onto paper. This is my gesture—an attempt to preserve what cannot be seen with the eyes, to open a new horizon of understanding. Let it be only a faint trace, but each viewer may find their own meaning within it.
Between the origami-book and the prints lies a sheet of handmade paper, embedded with the same natural materials used in the work. It brings us back to simplicity, to origins. Each book is unique, just like the process of its making.
For more info and order please contact me at ritaginzburgart@gmail.com