Loitsuja – Conjuros

The Ibero-American Institute of Finland celebrates its 30 years of creating cultural bridges with this group exhibition that brings together five artists from the Huuto Gallery in Helsinki and can be visited in the Institute's gallery from 10 September to 22 October.

This exhibition is part of the programme of activities commemorating three decades focused on cultural exchange between Finland, Spain and Ibero-America. The exhibition takes as its point of reference a magical tradition linked to the lands of northern Europe, but does not intend to recreate it as something belonging solely to the past.

On the contrary, Loitsuja – Conjuros asks what place rituals, popular beliefs and our relationship with nature can occupy today. The forest, animals, plants, the body and the small gestures of daily life thus become territories where the everyday and the magical meet.

What kind of magic do we need to face daily life in troubled times? What can we recover from popular tradition, superstitions and rituals to interpret our present? These are some of the questions raised by the exhibition, in which Jesse Avdeikov, Satu Rautiainen, Sirkku Rosi, Minna Suoniemi and Rose-Mari Torpo create a web of new spells through contemporary art.

The works of the five artists exhibit through textiles, embroidery, appliqués, watercolours, painting and video different ways of understanding magic as a tool to observe, transform or even escape reality.

The opening day of the exhibition, scheduled for 10 September, will bring together art, music and Finnish gastronomy, with a musical performance by Raul Mannola and a gastronomic proposal inspired by Finland. The celebration will also serve as a meeting point for artists, institutions, cultural professionals, collaborators and the Institute's public.