Silja Rantanen’s painting appears to be an abstract image shaped by broad, alternately straight and curved dark lines that form a broken shape against a light background. In the pattern, some dark dots stand out. The style of painting is controlled, but it also has a freer, unbound organic aspect. Guided by the title, the seemingly non-figurative image can actually be read as a city map. The work is part of a series of “mental maps” of different cities like Paris and Burano.
Two Days in Ascoli Piceno refers to a small town in Northern Italy visited by the artist. The dots in the painting mark out the coordinates of a number of churches drawn by the artist during her stay. The painting is an image of how she remembers the place, reshaped into an independent work during the artistic process. Therefore, it is also an image of the selective memory that not only registers and conserves, but also continuously reconstructs reality to suit our purposes
