Ilona Valkonen
Monrepos Loviisa
Galleria Huuto Jätkäsaari 1
11–26 May 2013
Panorama painting
Acrylic and egg tempera as well as oil on canvas, ropes and strings
In late 2010, we found our dream house in Loviisa. While waiting for the move, I worked at my studio in Helsinki painting our future home with the text “Monrepos” (my resting place) on the wall. I was about to begin a busy and more simple stage in my life that would only involve rest in the figurative sense. It would be rest from restless searching and from the feeling of homelessness.
That was almost two and a half years ago. Loviisa literally almost became my final resting place. The picturesque little town has been a scene of violence for us.
The current situation: an apple tree cut from its trunk. New branches have begun to sprout on the edges of the cut surface. They are translucently green and fragile, unlike the thick and hardened stump. An unexpected alternative life is growing from this tree, another opportunity, another reality.
Loviisa, 6 April 2013
Ilona Valkonen
