Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Parkett 68 – 2003
Eija-Liisa
Ahtila
EIJA-LIISA AHTILA, THE HOUSE, 2002, 14 min.
DVD installation for 3 projections with sound /
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E ija-Liisa Ahtila E ija-Liisa Ahtila
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come here.” This is how the psychosis started. Since through research gives you the freedom to invent external subjects to a more personal subject matter. structure, as a way of creating what is around you.
Anne lived only in Aki’s dreams, I wanted Anne to be things. In GRAY (1997), one persona recounts the effects E A : When an artist makes a film, people often as-
present—to be there for everyone to see. So I put out C I : An aspect of your work reminds me of Holly- of nuclear accident on the environment, through sume that everything rises from their personal life—
a casting call, took the job description to the em- wood melodrama, and its heightened psychological different voices. that the topic is autobiographical, and the events in
ployment office, and fourteen women responded. fear. E A : I made that work in 1993, when I was invited to the film have happened to the artist and are pre-
Seven of the short interviews with them appear on E A : I like Robert Altman, Rainer Werner Fassbin- take part in two different exhibitions, one in Stock- sented more or less in the way that they occurred in
another screen, making the process of making the der and John Cassavetes, among others—but during holm and one in Moscow. I got the idea for the work real life. This kind of approach eliminates the pro-
film more visible. the working process, books I’ve read are more im- one evening when I was at home. I don’t remember cess of making the work, the distance between an
C I : Is this the piece in which the process of the portant. what I was doing. The TV was on, but I wasn’t really idea and the finished film, everything that actually
making of the film is most clearly evident? The con- C I : You’re more influenced by literature than by watching it. I noticed an advertisement, then I went makes the work what it really is. It completely over-
trast between fiction and reality is very precise there, film? on doing what I was doing, then after a while, I saw it looks the creative process—the ways of creating mean-
because the realism of the actresses being inter- E A : It depends. When I’m planning the work, mak- again. I wasn’t quite sure if it was exactly the same as ing within the medium itself. For example, in film,
viewed contrasts so strongly with Aki’s fantasies. It ing notes and writing the script, text is material with before or another version of it. This made me think emotions are created from a knowledge of the char-
reminds me of Brechtian theater, where the mechan- which I have a kind of communication. For example, about the way adverts work, the special needs of a acters, the use of sounds, juxtapositions of material,
ics of how the drama is created are made evident. in a book I bought yesterday, there’s a paragraph short slot, and the relationship between fiction and rhythms of editing, etc. Also, this attitude forgets the
E A : When the actor suddenly directs the words to with a simple description of a phone ringing on the the advertisements. I became interested in doing a important input of the members of the crew—the
the audience … wall. This gave me an idea about a transition from work in the space reserved for adverts on TV. The cinematographer, the sound designer, the set design-
C I : … and the illusion is broken. one scene to another. In the book, it wasn’t an themes of both exhibitions happened to be “iden- er, the editor, just to mention a few.
E A : Since Brecht and Godard, and long nights with important thing, but it gave me an idea that was tity.” I made three short spots of which the last one On the other hand, I don’t wish to deny the im-
TV, I feel that illusion has become material to work suitable for the atmosphere of the scene. I enjoy deals with national identity and culture in relation to portance of the personal when making the work, in
with. Sometimes it’s interesting to think about, rather reading Paul Bowles, Ian McEwan, Patrick McGrath, the pervasiveness of nuclear disaster. terms of my own point of view and my relationship to
than to create illusion. Don DeLillo. Now I’m reading Virginia Woolf’s short C I : You often use different personae to tell a story. society. This leads me to think of how the “personal”
C I : Your process of disrupting illusion could be stories. I usually read material about the subject mat- One voice starts and another voice picks up where functions in making works with moving images.
argued to relate to the conceptual practices of the ter I’m working on as well. the other left off, until the origin of the voice be- Sometimes I’m asked questions like “Have you been
sixties, which you’ve developed within a narrative C I : In your recent works, the intimacy of a domes- comes confused. It becomes especially ambiguous be- mentally ill?” But I’d rather talk about the ways the
cinematic framework. You also use the performative tic environment heightens the claustrophobia of the cause we move back and forth between documentary personal can be seen in the rhythm of the work, the
as part of this questioning. darkened space, creating a kind of container for the and fiction. We don’t know what you’ve written and editing, and maybe in the way light functions as part
E A : I haven’t thought of this in relation to my work emotional intensity that is expressed. In THE WIND what you’ve read. That fragmentation of the single of the story.
but it’s funny that many of my friends are from the- (2002), the construction of space within the film voice through language seems to be an expression of C I : In relation to your photographic works, in par-
ater. I remember enjoying Meyerhold’s ideas as a is conveyed both materially and psychologically, the fragmented self. ticular the constructed domestic interiors, you have
young student. through physical space: the walls and curtains close E A : Using different voices, male and female, with talked of the doll’s house, and the construction of an
C I : Also related to the Brechtian element is your in, then the bookshelves fall over. one actor on screen, was a means of questioning the interior space in which the raw edges of the walls are
resonance with Finnish cinema, which is often semi- E A : I like to keep the different elements of moving boundaries between self and other. With the work visible—the artifice of the room, as almost a stage
documentary, and socially based. In your work, we images equal, to use sounds, colors and light instead IF 6 WAS 9 (1995), I tried to use the split screen as set, is revealed.
encounter young men and women, teenagers, older of giving information only through dialogue. But I a metaphor of the teenage girl’s identity. It was E A : I usually make one photographic series per
women, all with complex problems. We can identify like words … the first work in which I used several projections. I year. I like to make a series, not just single pieces. In
with them, because they’re not romanticized. C I : This kind of equality was already present in planned the work when I was still living in L.A. I saw one frame, there are usually two to four images.
E A : I want the characters to be straightforward, but your earliest wall pieces, in which you combined text a series of billboard advertisements made of huge Since I started working with moving images, it’s been
on the other hand also poetic. and images within a single metal frame. Those struc- black-and-white photos showing models standing in difficult for me to work with just one image. It feels
C I : They also have a surreal quality. tures seem to anticipate the screen structures in your a composite of several images, and you could see too fixed, without time and a possibility to make an
E A : Maybe that’s because of the combination I men- projective installations. In THE WIND or THE HOUSE the cut between them. I thought the split screen error. An error is a chance, a crack, a break of an or-
tioned. All the stories and characters are fictional, (2002), we look up towards the screens, which sug- suggested the idea of girls growing up. der. I don’t use film stills or the same material as in
but based on research. When I start thinking about a gest both cinematic viewing and large-scale painting. C I : Within this approach, what does “personal” the films, but the different works can be linked the-
work, I like to be certain about the facts—I need to This seems to be a key to the relationship between mean? You have adopted a non-personal—non-auto- matically. After finishing the installation THE HOUSE
know that it could have happened, and that it’s be- your still images and your installations. And there biographical—approach in constructing your work, and the film LOVE IS A TREASURE (2002), I still want-
lievable. Then again, the knowledge that you gain was a moment where this relationship shifted, from but you also want us to think about the personal as a ed to work with the themes of perception and giving
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E ija-Liisa Ahtila E ija-Liisa Ahtila
come here.” This is how the psychosis started. Since through research gives you the freedom to invent external subjects to a more personal subject matter. structure, as a way of creating what is around you.
Anne lived only in Aki’s dreams, I wanted Anne to be things. In GRAY (1997), one persona recounts the effects E A : When an artist makes a film, people often as-
present—to be there for everyone to see. So I put out C I : An aspect of your work reminds me of Holly- of nuclear accident on the environment, through sume that everything rises from their personal life—
a casting call, took the job description to the em- wood melodrama, and its heightened psychological different voices. that the topic is autobiographical, and the events in
ployment office, and fourteen women responded. fear. E A : I made that work in 1993, when I was invited to the film have happened to the artist and are pre-
Seven of the short interviews with them appear on E A : I like Robert Altman, Rainer Werner Fassbin- take part in two different exhibitions, one in Stock- sented more or less in the way that they occurred in
another screen, making the process of making the der and John Cassavetes, among others—but during holm and one in Moscow. I got the idea for the work real life. This kind of approach eliminates the pro-
film more visible. the working process, books I’ve read are more im- one evening when I was at home. I don’t remember cess of making the work, the distance between an
C I : Is this the piece in which the process of the portant. what I was doing. The TV was on, but I wasn’t really idea and the finished film, everything that actually
making of the film is most clearly evident? The con- C I : You’re more influenced by literature than by watching it. I noticed an advertisement, then I went makes the work what it really is. It completely over-
trast between fiction and reality is very precise there, film? on doing what I was doing, then after a while, I saw it looks the creative process—the ways of creating mean-
because the realism of the actresses being inter- E A : It depends. When I’m planning the work, mak- again. I wasn’t quite sure if it was exactly the same as ing within the medium itself. For example, in film,
viewed contrasts so strongly with Aki’s fantasies. It ing notes and writing the script, text is material with before or another version of it. This made me think emotions are created from a knowledge of the char-
reminds me of Brechtian theater, where the mechan- which I have a kind of communication. For example, about the way adverts work, the special needs of a acters, the use of sounds, juxtapositions of material,
ics of how the drama is created are made evident. in a book I bought yesterday, there’s a paragraph short slot, and the relationship between fiction and rhythms of editing, etc. Also, this attitude forgets the
E A : When the actor suddenly directs the words to with a simple description of a phone ringing on the the advertisements. I became interested in doing a important input of the members of the crew—the
the audience … wall. This gave me an idea about a transition from work in the space reserved for adverts on TV. The cinematographer, the sound designer, the set design-
C I : … and the illusion is broken. one scene to another. In the book, it wasn’t an themes of both exhibitions happened to be “iden- er, the editor, just to mention a few.
E A : Since Brecht and Godard, and long nights with important thing, but it gave me an idea that was tity.” I made three short spots of which the last one On the other hand, I don’t wish to deny the im-
TV, I feel that illusion has become material to work suitable for the atmosphere of the scene. I enjoy deals with national identity and culture in relation to portance of the personal when making the work, in
with. Sometimes it’s interesting to think about, rather reading Paul Bowles, Ian McEwan, Patrick McGrath, the pervasiveness of nuclear disaster. terms of my own point of view and my relationship to
than to create illusion. Don DeLillo. Now I’m reading Virginia Woolf’s short C I : You often use different personae to tell a story. society. This leads me to think of how the “personal”
C I : Your process of disrupting illusion could be stories. I usually read material about the subject mat- One voice starts and another voice picks up where functions in making works with moving images.
argued to relate to the conceptual practices of the ter I’m working on as well. the other left off, until the origin of the voice be- Sometimes I’m asked questions like “Have you been
sixties, which you’ve developed within a narrative C I : In your recent works, the intimacy of a domes- comes confused. It becomes especially ambiguous be- mentally ill?” But I’d rather talk about the ways the
cinematic framework. You also use the performative tic environment heightens the claustrophobia of the cause we move back and forth between documentary personal can be seen in the rhythm of the work, the
as part of this questioning. darkened space, creating a kind of container for the and fiction. We don’t know what you’ve written and editing, and maybe in the way light functions as part
E A : I haven’t thought of this in relation to my work emotional intensity that is expressed. In THE WIND what you’ve read. That fragmentation of the single of the story.
but it’s funny that many of my friends are from the- (2002), the construction of space within the film voice through language seems to be an expression of C I : In relation to your photographic works, in par-
ater. I remember enjoying Meyerhold’s ideas as a is conveyed both materially and psychologically, the fragmented self. ticular the constructed domestic interiors, you have
young student. through physical space: the walls and curtains close E A : Using different voices, male and female, with talked of the doll’s house, and the construction of an
C I : Also related to the Brechtian element is your in, then the bookshelves fall over. one actor on screen, was a means of questioning the interior space in which the raw edges of the walls are
resonance with Finnish cinema, which is often semi- E A : I like to keep the different elements of moving boundaries between self and other. With the work visible—the artifice of the room, as almost a stage
documentary, and socially based. In your work, we images equal, to use sounds, colors and light instead IF 6 WAS 9 (1995), I tried to use the split screen as set, is revealed.
encounter young men and women, teenagers, older of giving information only through dialogue. But I a metaphor of the teenage girl’s identity. It was E A : I usually make one photographic series per
women, all with complex problems. We can identify like words … the first work in which I used several projections. I year. I like to make a series, not just single pieces. In
with them, because they’re not romanticized. C I : This kind of equality was already present in planned the work when I was still living in L.A. I saw one frame, there are usually two to four images.
E A : I want the characters to be straightforward, but your earliest wall pieces, in which you combined text a series of billboard advertisements made of huge Since I started working with moving images, it’s been
on the other hand also poetic. and images within a single metal frame. Those struc- black-and-white photos showing models standing in difficult for me to work with just one image. It feels
C I : They also have a surreal quality. tures seem to anticipate the screen structures in your a composite of several images, and you could see too fixed, without time and a possibility to make an
E A : Maybe that’s because of the combination I men- projective installations. In THE WIND or THE HOUSE the cut between them. I thought the split screen error. An error is a chance, a crack, a break of an or-
tioned. All the stories and characters are fictional, (2002), we look up towards the screens, which sug- suggested the idea of girls growing up. der. I don’t use film stills or the same material as in
but based on research. When I start thinking about a gest both cinematic viewing and large-scale painting. C I : Within this approach, what does “personal” the films, but the different works can be linked the-
work, I like to be certain about the facts—I need to This seems to be a key to the relationship between mean? You have adopted a non-personal—non-auto- matically. After finishing the installation THE HOUSE
know that it could have happened, and that it’s be- your still images and your installations. And there biographical—approach in constructing your work, and the film LOVE IS A TREASURE (2002), I still want-
lievable. Then again, the knowledge that you gain was a moment where this relationship shifted, from but you also want us to think about the personal as a ed to work with the themes of perception and giving
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FO R M V O N F I L M
DE N K E N I N
EIJA-LIISA AHTILA
im Gespräch mit
CHRISSIE ILES
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