Consolation Service: The Films of Eija-Liisa Ahtila

In conjunction with the exhibition of work by Finnish artist Eija-Lisa Ahtila currently on display at Charles H. Scott Gallery, the Pacific Cinémathèque presents an in-cinema screening of Ahtila’s superb films. A resident of Helsinki, Ahtila is an accomplished film and video artist whose work has been presented at important galleries and screened in major film festivals around the world. Her innovative moving-image art marries avant-garde possibility with narrative accessibility, producing remarkably cinematic works dazzling in their formal conception and riveting in their dramatic execution. She mixes documentary realism and cinematic fantasy, and draws on visual tropes familiar from music video, TV drama and commercial advertising, to craft these expansive and beguiling films — exploring, in the process, the way narratives are constructed in filmic language.

Ahtila’s Consolation Service, a startling split-screen exploration of social rituals and personal relationships, was featured at the 1999 Venice Biennale, where it received an Honourable Mention citation. Most recently, Ahtila won the Vincent Van Gogh Biannual Award for Contemporary Art in Europe, which carries a cash prize of 50,000 Euros.

Consolation Service (Lohdutusseremonia): Premiered as an installation piece at the 1999 Venice Biennale, Consolation Service is a breathtakingly accomplished split-screen drama with enough narrative oomph for a feature film. Structured as a story-within-a-story, and mixing documentary realism with cinematic fantasy, this beautifully shot work recounts the breakdown of a young Helsinki couple’s marriage. The drama is intense, the formal control assured, the novel conception perfectly executed.
Finland 1999/2000. 35mm, 24 mins.

Today (Tänään): Three evocative episodes, poetically connected by various dramatic and formal elements, explore the relationship between a father and daughter, using the accidental death of a grandfather as a starting point.
Finland 1996. 35mm, 10 mins.

H 6 Was 9 (Jos 6 olis 9): Rendered with documentary directness, this experimental drama presents five teenage girls undergoing the metamorphosis into sexual being. As they relay their hopes, fears, dreams and experiences, a triple-screen effect uses images in counterpoint and contrast as a formal means of suggesting the young women’s conflicted impulses—distancing, approaching—towards sexuality.
Finland 1995. 35mm, 10 mins.

Me/We; Okay; Gray: Three 90-second narratives situated between, and exploring the cross-fertilization of, drama and TV commercials.
Finland 1993. 35mm, 5 mins.

International acclaimed film and video artist Eija-Liisa Ahtila has shown her work in numerous prestigious exhibitions and film festivals. She is the recipient of an Honourable Mention at the Venice Biennale in 1999 and, most recently, won the 50,000 Euro Vincent Van Gogh Bi-annual Award for Contemporary art in Europe.