Eija-Liisa Ahtila
Conversation
Thursday, 3rd June 2021
12:15-13:15 CET
Abstract
The distinction between installation artist and filmmaker fades pleasantly in the case of Eija-Liisa Ahtila. Her installations have narrative power, yet showing a subtle but intriguing difference between a story being told and a story unfolding. Rather than focussing on a particular action or a journey of some kind there is a strong empathic attentiveness to a state of being; including the being in a sort of limbo, being in pupation, being in the wind. It is this kind of story that can make a tree or an open space the protagonist. The talk with Eija-Liisa Ahtila will evolve around issues like choreography, patience, rhythm and the questioning of the notion of one coherent perception of the world.
Short Vita
Eija-Liisa Ahtila is a contemporary visual artist and filmmaker. She experiments with narrative storytelling in her films and cinematic installations. In her earlier works she has dealt with the unsettling human dramas at the centre of personal relationships, dealing e.g. with teenage sexuality, family relations, mental disintegration and death. Her later works deal with profound and basic artistic questions where she investigates the processes of perception and attribution of meaning, at times in the light of a larger cultural and existential thematic like colonialism, faith and posthumanism.
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