Eija-Liisa Ahtila
dal 24/2/2010 al 24/4/2010
Segnalato da
24/2/2010
Eija-Liisa Ahtila
Parasol Unit, London
The exhibition will consist of three video installations: Where is Where?, The Hour of Prayer and Fishermen. She describes her films as 'human dramas' because they play on the central themes of our existence, such as love, death, sexuality, the difficulty of communication, and individual identity - both its formation and disintegration. As Ahtila's films are often shown on multiple screens or within complex installations, her stories unfold simultaneously within time and space, thereby creating a multi-layered experience.
Parasol unit is delighted to present a major solo exhibition by the renowned Finnish film and video artist Eija-Liisa
Ahtila. It will include three important video installations never before seen in England.
Ahtila is best known for works that concentrates on narratives in human life together with the relationships and
primal emotions that underlie them. She describes her films as 'human dramas’ because they play on the central
themes of our existence, such as love, death, sexuality, the difficulty of communication, and individual identity –
both its formation and disintegration. Her fictional stories emerge from interviews and extensive research, her own
observation and memory. As Ahtila’s films are often shown on multiple screens or within complex installations, her
stories unfold simultaneously within time and space, thereby creating a multi-layered experience that engages the
viewer both physically and emotionally. Her masterfully crafted narratives, striking portrayal of characters and
highly individual mode of expression have captured public interest and won much critical acclaim.
The exhibition will consist of three video installations Where is Where?, The Hour of Prayer and Fishermen, and will
be accompanied by a new publication.
Where is Where? is a haunting and layered consideration of how the interpretation of history affects our perception
of reality. It tells of a dramatic event that occurred during the Algerian War, when two young Algerian boys killed
their French playmate in a colonialist conflict. Fifty years on, a European poet seeks to understand that act. Space
and time fall away in the experiences and existentialist writings of the poet, as do notions of morality, religion, guilt
and forgiveness.
The Hour of Prayer is a short tale about human nature, renunciation and death, which marks a watershed in the
artist’s production. Via the events surrounding the demise of a dog, it tells the story of death entering a house
and the process of dealing with grief. The material is shown in four simultaneous projections, the intention
being to explore the possibilities of disrupting the traditional causal logic, structure and space for perception in
screen narrative, while still being able to follow the events.
Filmed in West Africa in an area where locals frequently attempt illegal immigration to Europe in the hope of a
better future, Fishermen is the first work in a series of five one-channel video installations called Études. 1 It
recounts the tale of a group of men who repeatedly and frantically attempt to get out to sea in the face of
strong winds and heavy seas, in a vain hope to earn their daily food.
In conjunction with the exhibition, Parasol unit with the support of FRAME (Finnish Fund for Art Exchange) will
hold a one-off screening of Ahtila’s film Where is Where? This UK premiere will be held at the Prince Charles
Cinema, Leicester Square, on Wednesday 14th April 2010 at 7pm. It will be followed by a discussion between Eija-
Liisa Ahtila and Stuart Comer, Curator of Film at Tate Modern.
Eija-Liisa Ahtila (born 1959 in Hämeenlinna, Finland), held her first solo exhibition in 1990 at the Tampere Art
Museum, Finland, and since then has exhibited extensively in Europe and the USA. Her exhibitions include: 2009,
Eija-Liisa Ahtila, Museum of Modern Art Aalborg, Denmark; 2008, Eija-Liisa Ahtila, Kunstsammlung Nordhein-
Westfalen, K21, Düsseldorf, Germany; 2008, Eija-Liisa Ahtila, Jeu de Paume, Paris, France; 2006, Eija-Liisa Ahtila:
The Wind, MoMA Media Space, New York, USA; 2004, Intention to Fail, Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley, USA; 2003,
Tokyo Opera City Gallery, Tokyo, Japan; 2002, Fantasized Persons and Taped Conversations, Kiasma, Museum of
Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Finland; 2001, Sala Montcada of Fundació "La Caixa", Barcelona, Spain; 2000, Neue
Nationalgalerie, Berlin, Germany; 1999, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, USA; 1998, Museum Fridericianum,
Kassel, Germany.
Ahtila’s work has also been shown at numerous film screenings and festivals, including the Sundance Film
Festival, Utah, USA; Locarno International Film Festival, Switzerland; Hong Kong International Film Festival, Hong
Kong, China; and film retrospectives at MoMA, New York, USA, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France and Tate Modern,
London, UK.
Image: Where is Where?, 2008, 53 min 43 sec, 6-channel projected high definition installation with 8-channel sound, Courtesy of Marian Goodman Gallery, New York and Paris, © 2008 Crystal Eye – Kristallisilmä Oy
For further information please contact Asha Burchett on 020 7490 7373 or email events@parasol-unit.org
Private view: 25 February, 6.30 - 9 pm
Parasol unit foundation for contemporary art
14 Wharf Road London N1 7RW
Gallery opening hours:
Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m. and Sunday, 12–5 p.m.
Closed: Good Friday and Easter Sunday.
Admission Free