Eija-Liisa Athila: DOIN IT

“Equally dreamy but at the same time connected to everyday life is the video story about Finnish teenage girls by Eija-Liisa Ahtila on display at Index /…/. Three projections show sequences from the girls’ lives, commented on by a shameless and self-disclosing story about awakened sexuality. The whole thing is fiction, but effectively simulates the documentary. I’m thinking of Larry Clarke’s quasi-documentary ‘Kids’, which depicts the brutal sexuality of American youth, and it strikes me how sensitively Ahtila captures the girls’ at once violent and fragile images.”

Translated quote from DN, 1995-12-08, Daniel Birnbaum. Read full text in Swedish.