In Person: Eija-Liisa Ahtila

Program

IF 6 WAS 9
1997, 35mm (Dolby Surround), 10 min
CONSOLATION SERVICE
1999, 35mm (Dolby Digital), 25 min
FISHERMEN / Études no. 1
2007, DVD, 5 min
THE ANNUNCIATION
2011, DCP (Dolby Digital), 35 min

Eija-Liisa Ahtila has conceived expansive, cinematographic installations with a narrative core, whose suspension of time and space is characterised by both filmic peculiarities as well as one-dimensional perspectives on the world, perception and human emotions. In the mumok cinema the single-channel versions will be presented. A selection of early films can be seen, which are almost classics of recent art and film history: If I Was 6 oscillates between reportage and video clip about the sexual confusion of female teenagers and Consolation Service tells the story of a break-up in three chapters, which in Ahtila's case resembles the mourning of a death. With its simple documentary depiction, Fishermen is an exception in the artist's work and yet a reflection of the global refugee movements, which often end fatally. A central motif of Christian art - the appearance of the angel Gabriel to Mary - is rehearsed and reenacted in The Annunciation in variations. Alongside the great Finnish actress Kati Outinen, female amateur actors, a raven, two donkeys and many carrier pigeons play pigeons play the wondrous scene. (Brigitta Burger-Utzer)

Eija-Liisa Ahtila is one of the most internationally recognised Nordic artists. She was born in Helsinki in 1959 and studied
law (1980-85) and at the same time studied at the Helsinki School of art. She studied film, video and multimedia at the
London College of Printing, at UCLA and at the American Film Institute in Los Angeles. Since the mid-1990s, her films and installations have been shown at film festivals and exhibited in museums and galleries. Her works (including photographs and objects) are represented by the Marian Goodman Gallery in New York and Paris. In 2002 she was invited to the first
Documenta in Kassel with her installation The House. She has had solo exhibitions at the Tate Modern, the Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, the De Appel Foundation in Amsterdam, the Fundació la Caixa in Barcelona and at the Jeu de Paume in Paris. She was represented at the Venice Biennale in 1999 and 2005. In 2011, she was appointed to the competition jury of the 68th International Venice International Film Festival. Eija-Liisa Athila lives and works in Helsinki.