Eija-Liisa Ahtila (born 1959 in

Hämeenlinna Hämeenlinna (; ; ; or ''Croneburgum'') is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Kanta-Häme. It is located in the southern interior of the country and on the shores of Vanajavesi, Lake Vanajavesi. The population of Hämeenlinna is appr ...

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

) is a contemporary visual artist and

filmmaker Filmmaking or film production is the process by which a Film, motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, beginning with an initial story, idea, or commission. Production then continues through screen ...

who lives and works in

Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...

. 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 syste ...

and attribution of meaning, at times in the light of larger cultural and existential themes, like

colonialism Colonialism is the control of another territory, natural resources and people by a foreign group. Colonizers control the political and tribal power of the colonised territory. While frequently an Imperialism, imperialist project, colonialism c ...

faith Faith is confidence or trust in a person, thing, or concept. In the context of religion, faith is " belief in God or in the doctrines or teachings of religion". According to the Merriam-Webster's Dictionary, faith has multiple definitions, inc ...

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. Posthumanization comprises "those pro ...

. Ahtila has participated in numerous international art exhibitions such as Manifesta (1998), the

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Architecture Biennale (), ...

(1999 and 2005), ''

documenta Documenta (often stylized documenta) is an Art exhibition, exhibition of contemporary art which takes place every five years in Kassel, Germany. Documenta was founded by artist, teacher and curator Arnold Bode in 1955 as part of the Bundesgarte ...

'' 11 (2002), São Paulo Art Biennial (2008) and the Sydney Biennale in 2002 and 2018. Ahtila has won several art and film awards, including the inaugural

Vincent Award The Vincent Award was a Dutch prize awarded to a European artist whose works were deemed highly relevant in contemporary art. The award was awarded every two years in the Netherlands from the year 2000 to 2014. Five artists were nominated, and the ...

(2000),

Artes Mundi Artes Mundi (Latin: ''arts of the world'') is an international arts organisation based in Cardiff, Wales. Established in 2002, it is committed to supporting international contemporary visual artists whose work engages with social reality and lived ...

(2006), Prince Eugen Medal (2008), and most recently Art Academic in Finland (2009). 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 UK ...

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 (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

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).

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

melodrama A melodrama is a Drama, dramatic work in which plot, typically sensationalized for a strong emotional appeal, takes precedence over detailed characterization. Melodrama is "an exaggerated version of drama". Melodramas typically concentrate on ...

s, Ahtila's work likewise exaggerates plots and characters to affect the viewer's emotions, with less appeal to immediate intellectual comprehension. 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 distinct works 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. Three-part works that are considered components of ...

, as trailers in cinemas, on television during commercial breaks and in art galleries. Ahtila explores questions of identity 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: * Describing what per ...

mix together and become inseparable. In ''Okay'' a woman is speaking about

violence Violence is characterized as the use of physical force by humans to cause harm to other living beings, or property, such as pain, injury, disablement, death, damage and destruction. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines violence a ...

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 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 in London, housing the United Kingdom's national collection of international Modern art, modern and contemporary art (created from or after 1900). It forms part of the Tate group together with Tate Britain, Tate Live ...

, and in 2006 her multi-screen video piece ''The Wind'' (2006) was exhibited at the

(MoMA). She has also had solo shows at the Guggenheim in

Bilbao Bilbao is a city in northern Spain, the largest city in the Provinces of Spain, province of Biscay and in the Basque Country (greater region), Basque Country as a whole. It is also the largest city proper in northern Spain. Bilbao is the List o ...

, Moderna Museet 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 20th century. It is part of the National Gallery of the Berlin State Museums. The museum building and its sculpt ...

in Berlin, the Parasol Unit in London, ACMI in

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and DHC/ART in Montreal. Among Ahtila's many other works is ''The Hour of Prayer'', first presented in 2005 at the

in Italy. 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

, 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 *''The Hour of Prayer'' (2005), 4-channel projected installation * ''Fishermen / Études N°1'' (2007), single channel projected installation * ''Where is Where?'' (2008), 6-channel projected installation * ''The Annunciation'' (2010), 3-channel projected installation * ''Horizontal'' (2011), 6-channel projected installation * ''Studies on the Ecology of Drama'' (2014), 4-channel projected installation * ''Potentiality for Love'' (2018), a hybrid installation that combines sculpture with moving image

Films

* '' Me/We, Okay, and Gray'' (1993), three 90-second mini-films, each of which was shown separately and as a

, as trailers in cinemas and on television during commercial breaks. Ahtila explores questions of identity and group relations through her use of narrative conventions derived from film, television and advertising. * ''If 6 was 9'' (1995) * ''Today'' (1996), won Honorable Mention in 1998. * ''Consolation Service'' (1999), Received Venice biannual prize. * ''Love is a Treasure'' (2002) * ''The Hour of Prayer'' (2005) * ''Where is Where?'' (2008) * ''The Annunciation'' (2010) * ''Studies on the Ecology of Drama'' (2017)

Awards

* 2006,

, Wales International Visual Arts Prize, Cardiff, UK * 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 photographers 20th-century Finnish women photographers 21st-century Finnish photographers 21st-century Finnish women photographers Alumni of the London College of Printing Finnish film directors Feminist artists Finnish feminists People from Hämeenlinna Recipients of the Prince Eugen Medal Finnish photographers Finnish video artists Finnish women film directors