To put “the cat on the table” is a Finnish expression that means broaching a somewhat difficult or awkward topic, something that might make one feel vulnerable or even excited (such as telling someone you are in love with them).

That’s what an artist’s table often looks like, a place of half-formed but thrilling ideas, of odds and ends, and mistakes that perhaps lead to new possibilities. For the final presentation together, AdMa 2020-21 participants brought artifacts related to their artistic research to literally put on the table as an invitation to guests and participants to engage in a lively and frank discussion on among other things the various “cats” that are at the heart of our practices.