Eija-Liisa Ahtila (born 1959 in
Hämeenlinna
Hämeenlinna (; sv, Tavastehus; krl, Hämienlinna; la, Tavastum or ''Croneburgum'') is a city and municipality of about inhabitants in the heart of the historical province of Tavastia and the modern province of Kanta-Häme in the south of F ...
,
Finland
Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...
)
is a
contemporary visual artist and
filmmaker
Filmmaking (film production) is the process by which a motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, starting with an initial story, idea, or commission. It then continues through screenwriting, castin ...
who lives and works in
Helsinki
Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...
.
Ahtila is most known for her multi-panel cinematic installations. She experiments with narrative storytelling in her films and cinematic
installations. In her earlier works, she dealt with the topic of unsettling human dramas at the center of personal relationships, dealing with teenage sexuality, family relationships, mental disintegration, and death. Her later works, however, pursue more profound artistic questions where she investigates the processes of
perception
Perception () is the organization, identification, and interpretation of sensory information in order to represent and understand the presented information or environment. All perception involves signals that go through the nervous system ...
and attribution of meaning, at times in the light of larger cultural and
existential
Existentialism ( ) is a form of philosophical inquiry that explores the problem of human existence and centers on human thinking, feeling, and acting. Existentialist thinkers frequently explore issues related to the meaning, purpose, and valu ...
themes, like
colonialism
Colonialism is a practice or policy of control by one people or power over other people or areas, often by establishing colonies and generally with the aim of economic dominance. In the process of colonisation, colonisers may impose their relig ...
,
faith
Faith, derived from Latin ''fides'' and Old French ''feid'', is confidence or trust in a person, thing, or In the context of religion, one can define faith as "belief in God or in the doctrines or teachings of religion".
Religious people often ...
and
posthumanism
Posthumanism or post-humanism (meaning "after humanism" or "beyond humanism") is an idea in continental philosophy and critical theory responding to the presence of anthropocentrism in 21st century thought. It encompasses a wide variety of b ...
.
[http://www.av-arkki.fi/en/artists/eija-liisa-ahtila_en/ Eija-Liisa Ahtila profile at AV-arkki]
Ahtila has participated in numerous international art exhibitions such as
Manifesta
Manifesta, also known as the European Nomadic Biennial, is a European pan-regional contemporary cultural biennale.
History
Manifesta was founded in 1994 by Dutch art historian Hedwig Fijen. The first edition took place in Rotterdam. One of ...
(1998), the
Venice Biennale
The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...
(1999 and 2005), ''
documenta'' 11 (2002),
São Paulo Art Biennial (2008) and the
Sydney Biennale
The Biennale of Sydney is an international festival of contemporary art, held every two years in Sydney, Australia. It is a large and well-attended contemporary visual arts event in the country. Alongside the Venice and São Paulo biennales and ...
in 2002 and 2018.
[http://www.artnews.com/2017/12/13/biennale-sydney-reveals-full-artist-list-2018-edition/ ARTnews: Biennale of Sydney Reveals Full Artist List for 2018 Edition]
Ahtila has won several art and film awards, including the inaugural
Vincent Award
The Vincent Award is a Dutch prize awarded to a European artist whose works are deemed highly relevant in contemporary art. The award is held every two years in the Netherlands. Five artists are nominated for the award, and are exhibited at the St ...
(2000),
Artes Mundi Artes Mundi (Latin: ''arts of the world'') is an international arts organisation based in Cardiff. Established in 2002, it is committed to supporting international contemporary visual artists whose work engages with social reality and lived experien ...
(2006),
Prince Eugen Medal
The Prince Eugen Medal ( sv, Prins Eugen-medaljen) is a medal conferred by the King of Sweden for "outstanding artistic achievement".
The medal was established in 1945 by the then King of Sweden, Gustaf V, in connection with the eightieth birthd ...
(2008), and most recently Art Academic in Finland (2009).
[http://www.taike.fi/en/academicians-of-art Taike: Art Academics]
Her work is held in the collections of the
Tate
Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...
and the
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues.
It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...
in New York. She is a former professor at the Department of Time and Space-based Art at the Finnish
Academy of Fine Arts (Finland)
The Academy of Fine Arts ( fi, Kuvataideakatemia; sv, Bildkonstakademin) in Helsinki, Finland is part of the University of the Arts Helsinki and provides the highest university-level theoretical and practical training in the country in fine arts ...
.
Artistic career
Writing in the journal ''
PAJ'', Jane Philbrick describes Ahtila's films as "Smart, emotionally arresting, engaging, affective." Philbrick continues, saying, "A self-described 'teller of human dramas', she approaches narrative equipped with a rigorous arsenal of postmodern strategies ... One of her most potent tools, however, is a two-centuries-old dramatic genre of proven emotional reach and punch, melodrama." Although done in a more sophisticated way than conventional
melodramas, Ahtila's work likewise exaggerates plots and characters to affect the viewer's emotions, with less appeal to immediate intellectual comprehension.
[Phibrick, Jane]
Subcutaneous Melodrama: The Work of Eija-Liisa Ahtila
'' PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art'', Vol.25, No.2 (May, 2003), pp.32-47.
In 1993, Ahtila created the three mini-films ''
Me/We, Okay, and Gray'': Each of these 90-second
mini-films was shown separately and as a
trilogy
A trilogy is a set of three works of art that are connected and can be seen either as a single work or as three individual works. They are commonly found in literature, film, and video games, and are less common in other art forms. Three-part wor ...
, as
trailers
Trailer may refer to: a
Transportation
* Trailer (vehicle), an unpowered vehicle pulled by a powered vehicle
** Bicycle trailer, a wheeled frame for hitching to a bicycle to tow cargo or passengers
** Full-trailer
** Semi-trailer
**Horse trail ...
in cinemas, on television during commercial breaks and in art galleries. Ahtila explores questions of
identity
Identity may refer to:
* Identity document
* Identity (philosophy)
* Identity (social science)
* Identity (mathematics)
Arts and entertainment Film and television
* ''Identity'' (1987 film), an Iranian film
* ''Identity'' (2003 film), ...
and
group relations through her use of narrative conventions derived from film, television and advertising.
In ''Me/We'' the father of a family speaks about his family in a monologue and other players mouth his words. When the father speaks about his family members' emotions, their
personalities
Personality psychology is a branch of psychology that examines personality and its variation among individuals. It aims to show how people are individually different due to psychological forces. Its areas of focus include:
* construction of a ...
mix together and become inseparable.
In ''Okay'' a woman is speaking about
violence
Violence is the use of physical force so as to injure, abuse, damage, or destroy. Other definitions are also used, such as the World Health Organization's definition of violence as "the intentional use of physical force or Power (social and p ...
in man and woman relationship and as she steps across the room like a tiger in a cage, her voice goes up and shows pure violence.
In ''Gray'' three women in a lift go down into the water and talk about the atomic explosion and its effects, while words and pictures mix
identity crisis
In psychology, identity crisis is a stage theory of identity development where it involves resolution of a conflict over the 8 stages of the lifespan.(Schultz, 216) The term was coined by German psychologist Erik Erikson.
The stage of psychosoci ...
and an atomic disaster.
In 2002, Ahtila created a film called ''The House'', for which she performed research that included conducting interviews with people who are afflicted by psychotic mental disorders. The film begins with a woman driving to a secluded house, and as events continue they take on a dreamlike state. The sounds become disorienting and the images begin to combine: the woman can see the car on the walls of the house; she hears boat horns that make no sense. The film is meant to be presented in an exhibit that displays each of the three screens on separate walls, making the viewer feel as if they are actually in the house where the project was filmed.
In 2002 she had a solo show at
Tate Modern
Tate Modern is an art gallery located in London. It houses the United Kingdom's national collection of international modern and contemporary art, and forms part of the Tate group together with Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. It is ...
, and in 2006 her multi-screen video piece ''The Wind'' (2006) was exhibited at the
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues.
It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...
(MoMA). She has also had solo shows at the
Guggenheim in
Bilbao
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, pushpin_map = Spain Basque Country#Spain#Europe
, pushpin_map_caption ...
,
Moderna Museet
Moderna Museet ("the Museum of Modern Art"), Stockholm, Sweden, is a state museum for modern and contemporary art located on the island of Skeppsholmen in central Stockholm, opened in 1958. In 2009, the museum opened a new branch in Malmö i ...
in Stockholm, the
Neue Nationalgalerie
The Neue Nationalgalerie (New National Gallery) at the Kulturforum is a museum for modern art in Berlin, with its main focus on the early 20th century. It is part of the National Gallery of the Berlin State Museums. The museum building and its ...
in Berlin,
the
Parasol Unit in London,
ACMI in
Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
and DHC/ART in Montreal.
Among Ahtila's many other works is ''The Hour of Prayer'', first presented in 2005 at the
Venice Biennale
The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...
in Italy.
[http://www.thecentreofattention.org/research/vafterimage.html Afterimage, July–August, 2005 by Maeve Connolly] The film is a four-channel video project that shows scenes from a woman's experience surrounding the death of her dog. Bridget Goodbody, writing for ''Time Out New York'', says that it presents "a nonnarrative cycle of apparently random, but nonetheless consequential scenes." Some of those scenes show how, when she was away from her dog, he fell through the ice of a frozen pond, breaking his leg. Another shows the dog brought to a veterinarian for treatment of the injury; a diagnosis of bone cancer is made. After the dog dies, the film presents scenes of the woman moving on with her life, living as an artist in Africa.
Another of her films, which debuted in 2009, is ''Where is Where?''. New York's
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues.
It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...
, which housed the seven-day exhibition, called it, "a haunting and layered consideration of how history affects our perception of reality." In the film, a present-day poet, with the assistance of
a figure who is the personification of death, investigates a murder committed fifty years ago. Two young Arab boys had killed their French friend during the Algerian War of Independence. As the poet investigates, images from the past and present begin to mix and collide; at one point the poet discovers the two boys seated in a boat, in the small swimming pool behind his house.
In 2011 Ahtila's exhibition ''horizontal'' first showed at the
Marian Goodman Gallery. This piece is a 6 projection instillation showing a pine tree. Each projection shows a different part of the tree. Ahtila distorts the pine tree with tilts of the camera and different coloring for each projection.
Although Ahtila's films do include more than one character, they tend to focus on the internal experience of just one person. Her work seems to be more about studying and understanding an individual's subjective experience, and how the influences around individuals shape who they are and what they do, and shape their unconscious selves. She is greatly interested in the factors that go into the construction of personal identity, and in how fluid that construct can be. Ahtila wants to explore, as she says, "how the subconscious is inherited in some way," citing as an example, "
he way/nowiki> in which my mother is physically present in myself and I am present in her."
Works
Installations
* ''Me/We, Okay, Grey'' (1993), 3-channel monitor installation with furniture
* ''If 6 was 9'' (1995), 3-channel projected installation
* ''Today'' (1996), 3-channel projected installation
* ''Anne, Aki and God'' (1998), 5-monitor & 2-screen installation with furniture
* ''Consolation Service'' (1999), 2-channel projected installation
* ''The Present'' (2001), 5-channel monitor installation with furniture
* ''The House'' (2002), 3-channel projected installation
* ''The Wind'' (2002), 3-channel projected installation
* ''Sculpture in the Age of Posthumanism'' (2004), a sculpture which includes the viewer
Films
* '' Me/We, Okay, and Gray'' (1993), three 90-second mini-films, each of which was shown separately and as a trilogy
A trilogy is a set of three works of art that are connected and can be seen either as a single work or as three individual works. They are commonly found in literature, film, and video games, and are less common in other art forms. Three-part wor ...
, as trailers
Trailer may refer to: a
Transportation
* Trailer (vehicle), an unpowered vehicle pulled by a powered vehicle
** Bicycle trailer, a wheeled frame for hitching to a bicycle to tow cargo or passengers
** Full-trailer
** Semi-trailer
**Horse trail ...
in cinemas and on television during commercial breaks. Ahtila explores questions of identity
Identity may refer to:
* Identity document
* Identity (philosophy)
* Identity (social science)
* Identity (mathematics)
Arts and entertainment Film and television
* ''Identity'' (1987 film), an Iranian film
* ''Identity'' (2003 film), ...
and group relations through her use of narrative conventions derived from film, television and advertising.
Awards
* 2013, Main Prize, Art Lab category, Festival Internazionale del Cinema d’Arte, Milan, Italy (work: ''The Annunciation'')
* 2012, Arte Award for Best European Film, International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, Germany (work: ''The Annunciation'')
* 2009, Title of Academician of Art, presented by the President of Finland, Helsinki, Finland
References
External links
Eija-Liisa Ahtila official website
*
Artist profile at Marian Goodman Gallery
*
BOMB Magazine interview with Eija-Liisa Ahtila, by Cary Wolfe
Eija-Liisa Ahtila’s Affective Images in ''The House''
by Tarja Laine, Dept. of Media and Culture, Univ. of Amsterdam. Published in Spring, 2006, edition of ''Mediascape'', UCLA's journal of cinema and media studies.
Artist's page on Artfacts.Net
''ArtForum'' review of Tate Modern show
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ahtila, Eija-Liisa
1959 births
Living people
20th-century Finnish women artists
20th-century photographers
20th-century women photographers
21st-century Finnish women artists
21st-century photographers
21st-century women photographers
Finnish filmmakers
Feminist artists
Finnish feminists
Finnish women photographers
People from Hämeenlinna
Recipients of the Prince Eugen Medal
Finnish photographers
Finnish video artists