Eija-Liisa Ahtila

A multi-image installation, realized by means of an ecological narrative, based on the idea of the spatiality on being.

Eija-Liisa Ahtila’s (b. 1959) third commissioned work for Serlachius is a multi-image installation Reflection of a Forest in which she continues to call into question the narrative of the moving image and human-centred perspective. Ahtila builds ways of representation and expression that can help create a more balanced understanding of the living reality on the planet.

The radical emergency of the living environment is already affecting our choices, ways of thinking and perceiving, as well as the role of culture and art in society. The starting point of the work is the common spatial being of different living things – life maintained together.

The work features different kinds of living performers and their fictional thinking and speech. It was filmed over a period of 3 years in different places in Southern Finland and its events take place during the cycle of the year.  

Artist Eija-Liisa Ahtila

Eija-Liisa Ahtila (b. 1959) is internationally Finland’s most renowned contemporary artist. In the early 1980s, she studied at the Free Art School in Helsinki and at the same time law at the University of Helsinki. 

In the early 1990s, she completed postgraduate studies in visual and film arts at the London College of Printing, UCLA, and the American Film Institute in Los Angeles. Later, Ahtila worked for a long time as a professor of space-time art at the Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki. 

Eija-Liisa Ahtila has organised dozens of solo exhibitions and participated in countless group exhibitions around the world. She is recognised as a pioneer of video art, focusing on works that move on the border between film and video art. She has understood in an original way the potential of moving images as a tool for art. At the same time, Ahtila has also continuously produced installations, drawings, photographs and spatial art. 

Ahtila’s works have been exhibited in internationally significant museums such as MoMA in New York, Tate Modern in London, Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin and Jeu de Paume in Paris. Her work has also been on show at major contemporary art festivals, such as the Venice Biennale and Documenta in Kassel. 

For Serlachius, she has previously made on commission the works Studies on the Ecology of Drama (2014) and Potentiality for Love (2018). These works have since been on show around the world. Eija-Liisa Ahtila has received many recognitions for her work as an artist. In 2009, she was named Academician of Art in Finland when she was only 49 years old. She has been awarded Young Artist of the Year in 1990, Pro Finlandia Prize in 2005, Artes Mundi Prize in 2006 and Prince Eugen Medal in 2009.

Artwork image: Eija-Liisa Ahtila, Reflection on a Forest, 2024, still image from a multichannel installation.