About the work: Baronesse Sipiere by Li Hongbo

Entirely made of paper from top to bottom, Baronesse Sipiere is a mesmerising sculpture that defies expectation. What appears at first to be a classical bust carved in marble is in fact composed of thousands of sheets of paper, folded in a honeycomb structure and then sculpted. This technique is inspired by traditional Chinese paper-folding methods, originally developed for festive lantern-making, which Li Hongbo revisits and elevates to a contemporary sculptural language.

The result is a work that plays with illusion in the most poetic way. What you see is not what it is. The solid becomes flexible, the still becomes moving, and the historical form becomes something deeply alive. The sculpture can be stretched, bent and reshaped, revealing an extraordinary inner life that contrasts with its serene outer shell.

This tension between appearance and reality opens a philosophical space. Li Hongbo invites us to reflect on the nature of things, on what lies beneath surfaces, on the impermanence of forms. Baronesse Sipiere is more than a technical feat, it is a meditation on transformation, memory and perception.

The viewer is not just a spectator but a participant in this slow unveiling. In the artist’s hands, paper becomes paradox: fragile yet enduring, familiar yet magical. The work leaves us suspended between wonder and contemplation, gently reminding us that nothing is ever quite what it seems.