A paper surgeon is responsible for performing interventions on images with artistic potential. He is able to remove diseased clippings or images, repair magazines, or replace limbs with cutouts. Paper surgeons can perform minimally invasive and uncomplicated collages that last just a few minutes or invasive and complicated paper art that can take several hours. Since magazines are at risk, paper surgeons must be alert, prepared for all types of emergency situations, and be able to carry out lifesaving initiatives at any time during an intervention."

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Enrique “Kike” Congrains is a self-taught artist and writer from Lima. He’s also the self-appointed Sheriff of Canson City, an imaginary town where each collage is a part of a bigger mythology filled with curious characters and curious traditions. Congrains has shown his work in exhibitions in Peru, as well as Argentina, Spain, England, Hong Kong, Scotland, and Norway at the Scandinavian Collage Museum. He’s been published in several magazines and books Like Collage Your Life, Politics in Collage and most recently in The Cutting Chaos from Finland. He curated a Latin-American collage Showcase for Sharp Hands Gallery. Participated as a speaker in Kolaj Fest 2018 and 2019 in New Orleans where presented his work and his activities in Peru. In 2015, he created CollageWave, an annual festival celebrating all things collage in Lima and then he launched the Instagram page where he curates analog collage from all over the world and has become one of the biggest networks of collage dissemination with over 80k followers. Congrains has been surveying for past few years the history of Latin American collage, profiling contemporary artists, and reporting on collectives, events, and galleries. When complete, Congrains will work with the Kolaj Institute to publish a book about Latin American collage on the six countries he is focusing on: Chile, Colombia, Argentina, Mexico, Peru, and Brazil. Since 2016 he has been offering free collage workshops to children in rural Peru. Congrains goes to the outskirts of Lima, sometimes to the countryside, with materials and tools. "I saw the potential in teaching collage to kids as a way to stimulate their creativity and in turn improve their quality of life” he states. He’s currently working with teenagers at the Maranguita Juvenile Detention Center at Lima, where he plans to put group show with the collages done in classes.

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Learn more about his work in the interview we did with him.