WHERE IS WHERE? I 2007/2008 I 57’00”
The theme of ‘Where is Where?’ is colonialism and the tension between two different cultures. Its starting point is a real event that took place in Algeria at the end of the 1950s when the country was still under French occupation. In reaction to the atrocities committed by the French, two Algerian boys killed their friend, a French boy of the same age. Many years later, this crime becomes a poetess’ obsession. She raises the spectre of colonialism, colonisation and oppression, to demonstrate its repercussions today, as well as to speak about the historical and personal trauma that resulted.
EIJA-LIISA AHTILA (FIN/°1959)
Ahtila is considered one of the most accomplished artists working with video today. She is based in Helsinki but has exhibited widely in major museums, exhibitions and biennials all over the world. Her work has been included in Documenta (1997) and the Venice Biennial (2002). In 2008 the Jeu de Paume in Paris and K21 in Düsseldorf held a retrospective of her work.
Where is Where?, 2008
Written and directed by Eija-Liisa Ahtila
Produced and Copyright owned by Crystal Eye Ltd., Helsinki
Courtesy of Marian Goodman Gallery, New York and Paris