The University Museum of Contemporary Art is pleased to present "The Annunciation," a new work by Eija-Liisa Ahtila, the internationally acclaimed artist from Finland who is a pioneer in the development of multi-media art. Her work explores the potential of the film medium, weaving an intricate web of references – between film and theater, painting and poetry, fiction and documentary.

Eija-Liisa Ahtila is a master story-teller in moving images. Her multi-screen narratives reveal the fragile inner life of her protagonists, as well as the tenuous line separating fantasy from reality. Using the visual language of cinema, her work has the powerful effect of dramatizing a psychological perception of space and time for the viewer.

"The Annunciation" is an installation of three projected images in which one of the central motifs of Christian iconography and Renaissance painting is constructed and re-enacted through moving image. In this Annunciation the events are set in the present. The installation consists of both material made during the preparation for shooting, as well as an actual reconstruction of the event of the Annunciation. The film material was shot mainly during the winter season of 2010 in the snowy Aulanko nature reserve in southern Finland and on a set depicting the artist’s studio and the scene of the Annunciation. All the actors, apart from two, are non-professionals and clients of the Helsinki Deaconess Institute’s women’s support services. Although based on an existing script, the events, roles and dialogue were adapted during the filming process in accordance with the actors’ individual presence.

Related Events:
Wednesday, February 22, 2012

UMCAMain Gallery

Opening Reception: 5:00 – 7:00pm

In Conversation: 6 – 7pm,

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

UMCA Main Gallery

7:30 pm

As part of the 19th annual Massachusetts Multicultural Film Festival intersections: fiction/non-fiction, spring 2012, a special screening of Eija-Liisa Ahtila’s THE ANNUNCIATION will be followed by an interdisciplinary panel discussion including scholars from art history, theater, and film, followed by a reception.

Museum Hours: Beginning February 1, 2012
Tuesday – Friday, 11:00 AM – 4:30 PM,

Saturday/Sunday 2 – 5 PM

Closed Mondays and Spring Break, March 17-26