Eija-Liisa Ahtila
ME/WE; OKAY; GRAY
February 9–March 10, 2001

Internationally acclaimed Finnish artist and filmmaker Eija-Liisa Ahtila creates evocative, emotionally charged dramatic productions that function both as films and as multi-channel video installation pieces for galleries. This multi-media installation is part of a series of activities with Ahtila who will be visiting Windsor for the week during our annual festival of film and video, Media City. 

Originally conceived for broadcast on Finnish television, the installation version of ME/WE; OKAY; GRAY (accompanied by the ASSISTANT SERIES photographs) is a three-channel monitor installation that relates an absurd episode in a nuclear family, examining the balance of individual identity and the question of control. First presented at the 1999 Venice Biennale, the installation version of CONSOLATION SERVICE (to be presented at the Art Gallery of Windsor in conjunction with Artcite’s concurrent gallery exhibit, and with the Media City 7 festival) is a two-channel video projection dealing with the theme of endings, death and time from the point of view of a young woman embroiled in a divorce. The cinematic versions of these two works will also be screened in a special retrospective program at Media City 7 along with two of Ahtila’s other films.

Eija-Liisa Ahtila’s visit to Windsor, and the installations and screenings presented as part of her visit, are one stop on a larger Canadian tour co-sponsored by Artcite Inc. in early 2001. Similar retrospective screenings, installations and lectures with the artist will be presented by the Charles H. Scott Gallery and Pacific Cinematheque in Vancouver, and by the Images Festival and OCAD in Toronto.

Ahtila’s tour, and the travel funding contributed by FRAME Finnish Fund for Art Exchange, were realized through the initiative of Artcite Inc. /HOT and the “Media City Festival”. Ahtila also presented a guest lecture during her Windsor visit, as part of the collaborative Visitors in the Arts (VITA) 2000-2001 visiting artist series.