Kati Riikonen: ECHOES
This exhibition honors the memory of Kati Riikonen's uncles, who lost their lives during the Continuation War against the Soviet Union from 1941 to 1945. The paintings are showcased behind the windows of the old family home, rescued by the artist before it was demolished.
"All we can hear here are these echoes. Nothing but the sounds of ravens and scavenger birds can be heard. The forest plays us wistful melodies outside the tent; may it play just as wistful melodies to all you living in freedom.” Aimo.
The paintings in the Echoes exhibition are based on the correspondence between two of my uncles, Unto and Aimo Riikonen, and their family back at home between 1939 and 1941. Those wartime letters have opened up a touching point of view on the period covering the Winter War and the Moscow Armistice and ending with the fall of my uncles in the first months of the Continuation War. At that time Europe was in a state of emergency, and the Second World War was to leave its sad imprint on the history of nations.
