MARJA AHTI
DATES
FEBRUARY 22, 2025
solo
Vaahterasali
Lahti, FI
MARCH 15, 2025
solo
Mengi
Reykjavik, IS
APRIL 19, 2025
Ahti & Ahti
Radiophrenia live-to-air
Glasgow, UK
MAY 3, 2025
solo
Oscillation: The Weather
Brussels, BE
NEWS
Mikko Kuorinki & Marja Ahti: Tulppaaniresitaatio – An assemblage of sounds from two exhibitions: Tulppaaniantenni (Ahti & Kuorinki, K17, Sipoo, 2022) and Resitaatio (Kuorinki, Sinne, Helsinki, 2023). Released as part of the radio show Untempo’s Postcards series.
Ahti & Ahti at Öres residency October 2024.
Residency at Hamuro, Fukui in September 2024.
Florence, June 14, 2024. Tuscany based Blutwurst ensemble will present their acoustic adaptations of two works of mine, Fluctuating Streams and Chora. I’ll have the pleasure of hearing this live and do a solo performance on the same night. Curated and produced by GADA Playhouse, Nub Project Space and Affektenlehre. Many thanks to Goethe Institut and Culture Moves Europe for the support
CONTACT
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PORTFOLIO
Tulppaaniantenni / Tulpanantenn / Tulip Antenna
Exhibition with Mikko Kuorinki at K17 – Space for Art and Ecology, Sipoo, November 2022
Tulip Antenna (2022) is a collaborative installation of objects and sounds by Mikko Kuorinki and Marja Ahti. The sounds and objects in the installation are physically, energetically and poetically linked to each other as well as the room and surrounding environment. They combine everyday materials – artificial, organic, decrepit, mint, momentary, timeless – in a gesture releasing them from their usual function and giving them another.
Sounds vibrate within the objects and the surfaces of the room. Sculptures speak through their own material, each assigned one voice, singing together in various constellations. Some objects are speaking, some are mute. Some are becoming charged with meaning and value. Sounding events are part of the ongoing vibration of the material world. The world is a flower, all phenomena are flowers. Where tile shards whisper, where dust heaps scream and shout – what does the tulip say?
More documentation from the exhibition here
THE ALTITUDES (2020)
”The Altitudes” is a multichannel piece commissioned by Ina GRM and Re-imagine Europe. It was premiered at Sonic Acts Academy 2020.
Inspired by descriptions of the layers of Earth’s atmosphere, “The Altitudes” conjures a movement through layers of air, unfolding with a slow intensity, interweaving concrete sounds and closely tuned electronic sonorities. Traversing the altitudes, a landscape of entangled elements, masses and currents emerges. The air around us has weight and it presses against everything it touches. As gravity pulls it to Earth, it is sensed as pressure. The rotation of the planet, the angle of the sun at any new moment sets the elements in motion in a chain reaction.
THOUSAND TIMES YES
Ahti / Kausalainen / Kalliokulju
Experimental chamber opera for soprano, cello, harp, chamber choir and tape.
70 min
Performances:
Inkonst in collaboration with IAC, Malmö, October 2021
Kunsthal Rønnebæksholm, Naestved, May 2022
Kiasma Theater, ARS22 Live, Helsinki 2022
An ancient organism in the Earth’s crust has started to transform and rise towards the surface. Its movements are resonated by the surrounding bodies of Minerals, Bacteria, Fungi, Gasses and the Atmosphere, resulting instability and uncertainty that clusters into a web of unexpected conflicts. Our protagonist is a human called G, who is unwillingly equipped with a skill to connect and communicate with different bodies and beings. She is summoned to mediate between the conflicting parties – and eventually with the ancient underground organism itself. G finally throws herself to the task fully, but the forces of the Universe are unexpected.
Music by Marja Ahti
Libretto, scenography & paintings by Jenny Kalliokulju
Concept, directing & costumes by Essi Kausalainen
Malmö ensemble: G: Johanna Kalliokulju, Bee: Florian Feigl, MA: Marja Ahti, Washing machine / Worm / Stream: Yuko Takeda, Cello: Henning Fredriksson, Harp & stream: Ingrid Larsson, Stream: Edith Glader
Rønnebæksholm ensemble: G: Johanna Kalliokulju, Bee: Florian Feigl, MA: Marja Ahti, Washing machine / Worm / Stream: Yuko Takeda, Cello: Henning Fredriksson, Harp & stream: Ingrid Larsson, Stream: Naestved elementary school class
Helsinki ensemble: G: Johanna Kalliokulju, Bee: Florian Feigl, MA: Marja Ahti, Washing machine / Worm / Stream: Yuko Takeda, Stream: Ahti Leppänen, Villa Ruscica, Etna Ruscica, Cello: Aino Juutilainen, Harp: Saara Olarte
In cooperation with Inter Arts Center, Kiasma Theater, Kunsthal Rønnebæksholm, Inkonst and Moderna Museet Malmö.
Video excerpt from Kiasma, August 8th 202
Shrine (Still Life With Glass Bottle, Flower and Microphone) (track from Still Lives, 2021)
“Still Lives” is the third solo full length by the Finnish composer Marja Ahti, following a pair of releases on the Hallow Ground imprint. As a collection, it may be seen as a series of studies on the liminality of the listening act and an investigation into the physicality of sound. Ahti forges vivid electroacoustic environments from field recordings, analog synthesizers, acoustic feedback, magnetic tape and digital processing, resulting in a set of articulate, prickly, and surprising compositions. In the artist’s words, “These pieces could be conceived of as vanitas paintings of a kind – selections of mundane or archetypal objects, sounds that have their own distinct qualities, but exist only by virtue of being temporary events. From another angle, one could think of them as shrines – objects assembled and set in a particular relationship to each other, charging each other in their given constellations.”