Cut-out Cities offers a material/visual reading of the European Union’s current economic landscape. The show arises with the aim of making visible the discouraging panorama of those countries most affected by a financial crisis which—as has occurred at various moments in history—has led to a social crisis. The exhibition itinerary has been designed to highlight the great effort all citizens are making within the framework of contentious austerity measures known as “spending-cut policies.” As we enter this itinerary, we first encounter austere formal elements, simplified and condensed around the colour blue and the circular form. These elements represent the identity and unity of the European Union, alluded to by the sky blue and the circle of twelve stars on its flag. Secondly, cylindrical structures have been produced that evoke urban buildings and skyscrapers used as emblems of economic globalization and as symbols of the city— which, as Jordi Borja writes, is a “[…] place of power, […] of institutions and domination. And of revolution when that domination becomes unbearable” (2005, p. 128). The message of Cut-out Cities finds its strongest grounding in the process by which each work in the exhibition is made. In production—drawing a parallel with scissor-led budget cuts—each piece has required a slow, painstaking, hand-cut technique that gives shape to circular structures housing hundreds of holes. In this way, the imposed cuts are made manifest: they open breaches within a supposed union and generate a generalized sense of disaffection, with greater impact in the most adversely affected countries. Regrettably, given the long duration of economic-recovery cycles, a first layer of cuts reveals—both in reality and in these works—a very similar pattern for the years to come. This tedious, exasperating process of cutting more than fifteen metres of paper—an allusion to the effort and sacrifice of all citizens—culminates in a final piece in which all the cut fragments are heaped together. After visiting a room whose large walls are covered with perforated structures, the viewer is confronted with a pile of offcuts that nevertheless occupy a small, almost insignificant space—thus evoking a reality that renders visible the vast disproportion between the efforts made and the rather scant positive results. . Borja, J. (2005). “Renacimiento de las ciudades”, Exit nº 17.