Anne, Aki and God

Anne, Aki and God is a video installation inspired by a news story. Suffering from schizophrenia, Aki resigns from his job and locks himself up at home where he lives in his personal world of sounds, images and flesh. The main character in Aki's world is his girlfriend, Anne Nyberg. In order to watch the video, viewers must enter Aki's microcosm, i.e. his apartment, which is recreated in the installation.

This piece by Eija-Liisa Ahtila is part of an on-going work titled A Quest for a Woman. The video of the installation documents the casting, which is “the starting point for the process of creating a consistent reality for the artwork”. Five actors audition for the characters of Aki. Progressively, the artist builds his story: God, played by two actors, and seven Annes add to the narrative.

The video installation Aki and God by Eija-Liisa Ahtila, a leading figure of video art, was first shown by the Pinault Collection in the exhibition The Illusion of Light at Palazzo Grassi, in 2014.