Exhibition in Helsinki September - October 2016, Opening reception

“The invitation from AVA Galleria to exhibit in their gallery in Helsinki, brings me back to a period in my life that meant a lot to my artistic development. Years ago I was awarded a grant and stay in one of the studios at Nordiskt Konstcentrum, Suomenlinna, as Norwegian representative. The meeting with Finnish art and culture, also with other Nordic artists whom I later exhibited together with, gave a strong resonance to places and landscapes that I, from early childhood, had seen through my inner eye, and since then tried to recreate through my works.” Calina Pandele Yttredal.

In 2016, the Norwegian visual artist Calina Pandele Yttredal presented her solo exhibition "Report from Parallel Realities" at the AVA Galleria, Helsinki. The Norwegian ambassador to Finland Mr. Åge B. Grutle enhanced in his opening speech, the good cultural relations between Finland and Norway and his hope to further develop this contact. 2018 celebrates 100 years of diplomatic relations between Norway and Finland, and we follow the event through Calina Pandele Yttredal's new solo exhibition at our gallery, entitled "At this Moment". This exhibition has also been shown in Osaka, Japan. The exhibition in Helsinki has got the addition "Part II", which is partly due to the fact that the artist has expanded the theme with some more works. In this way AVA Galleria and the artist intend to lift the message across borders and focus on thoughts about the time we live in. This also alludes to the theme of celebrating Finland's 100th Independence in 2017, which was "We Are Together".

The exhibition's title "At this Moment" is inspired by the Japanese term "Mono no aware" which expresses the essence of our existence, referring to the perishability of all things, an awareness that increases the importance and intensity of the present moment and emphasizes that we are all bound together in one or another way.

The importance of nature is a common issue for both Finland, Japan and Norway. Finland celebrates each year "nature`s day",  and has seven national symbols chosen by the people from nature, associated with Finnish mythology, traditions and popular culture. Yttredal finds interesting to look at themes we find in myths and legends through today's issues. If the population of bees and bumblebees were to decrease or, ultimately, disappear, may our livelihoods disappear too, when much of the food we eat is dependent on insect pollination. The swan is another threatened animal and a nature symbol for Finland, which occurs as well in Finnish folklore and culture, from the national epic Kalevala to the work of composer Jean Sibelius. The Sami culture, which is closely linked to nature, regards nature as if it possesses a soul, life and personality, a way of thinking we also find in Japanese culture. When focusing in this exhibition on the moment of light, of movement, on the moment just before something is going to happen, is to open for further dialogue across countries and cultures.