The Present

Eija-Liisa Ahtila

Preview: Friday 17th April 2009
Exhibition continues 18 April – 23 May 2009

Give yourself a present, forgive yourself’

Temple Bar Gallery and Studios is delighted to present its third exhibition of 2009, The Present a five piece film installation by renowned Finnish artist and filmmaker Eija –Liisa Ahtila. Ahtila has an extensive reputation both at home and abroad for her compelling film work, typically presented on split screens and multiple panels, exploring the full range of human emotions, relationships and psychoses. Ahtila’s films tell stories, vivid narratives are recounted that evolve from an in-depth process of research and observation and from intense collaborations with actors, cinematographers, producers and technical crew.

Ahtila’s output is considerable and The Present is a good starting point for understanding how she uses image, narrative, space and time to constantly challenge the viewer’s experience of her work. She has been described as ‘primarily a fiction writer who draws on the world of human psychoses, mainly female, to transform individual case studies of mental illness into an imaginary dreamworld’ (Paula Deitch, the New York Times).

The Present gives glimpses into the stories and personal world of women who have developed psychoses. Each of the five episodes shown on individual TV monitors relates one woman’s story. While the material is based on interviews the characters are fictional. The stories are fragmented, complex and layered. All of the situations are odd (a girl lies down in a puddle), unreal (a sudden wind rages inside a room) and surreal (a miniaturized woman hides beneath her bed) but not without humour (why are goalposts being dragged backwards across the pitch?). The arrangement of individual monitors choreographs the viewer into a path of engagement and disruption and moving between screens and stories is the best way to experience the intentional meshed effect. The one line epithet concluding each brief excerpt (Give yourself a present, forgive yourself) may be the mantra that protects, even while it risks being read as a subliminal advert. The ambiguity keeps things open-ended and, like any good storyteller, Ahtila leaves one thirsting for more.

The Present comes to Temple Bar Gallery following its extremely successful run at Void in Derry. TBG&S is grateful to Void for its assistance in facilitating the presentation of Ahtila’s work for the first time in Dublin.

Eija-Liisa Ahtila was born in Hameenlinna, Finland, in 1959. She studied film and video at the School of Media and Management at the London College of Printing and at UCLA and the American Film Institute in Los Angeles She has received numerous awards, including an honorable mention at the 1999 Venice Biennale, the Coutts Contemporary Art Foundation Award (Switzerland), and the DAAD prize (Germany), in addition to the 2006 Artes Mundi prize. Ahtila has exhibited extensively, including the Venice Biennale (1997, 1999, and 2005), Documenta 11 (2001), a major museum show at the Tate Modern in 2001 and the Sydney Biennale (2002). Her work is also represented in museum collections such as the Museum of Contemporary Art, Lyon; LA MoCA; MoMA; the Tate Modern, London; and the Moderna Museet, Stockholm. She lives and works in Helsinki, Finland.

Press Contact: Rayne Booth - Temple Bar Gallery & Studios - t. + 353 1 671 0073 - e. press@templebargallery.com