Eija-Liisa Ahtila

Finnish video artist Eija-Liisa Ahtila presents The Hour of Prayer, a short tale about attachment and death that is based on the artist's own life. Via the events surrounding the death of a dog, it tells the story of death entering a house and of the process of dealing with grief. These events begin in New York during a winter storm in January and end in Benin, West Africa, 11 months later. The Hour of Prayer is shown in four simultaneous projections. The material is split into four parts and the story has been edited to unfold on four screens. The intention is to explore the possibilities of disrupting the traditional causal logic, structure, and space for perception in screen narrative, while still being able to follow the events. Ahtila is the first artist to be shown in the Foster Gallery in the Jacobs Building at the new expanded MCASD Downtown.

Eija-Liisa Ahtila
THE HOUR OF PRAYER
MCASD DOWNTOWN, JACOBS BUILDING