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Underground Spirit Award presented to Mika Taanila at the 31st European Film Festival Palić

22.07.2024.

On Sunday, July 21, at the Summer Stage in Palić, the Underground Spirit Award was presented to film director and visual artist from Helsinki, Mika Taanila. This award recognizes outstanding work in independent cinema and unique authorial poetics developed outside the mainstream the film industry. The award was presented to Taanila by Nikolai Nikitin, the programmer of the Official Selection program of the festival.

"I met Mika back in 2001 in Tampere, at the most important short film festival in Finland and one of the three most important in the world, where we were jury members together. Even then, he was one of the most exceptional filmmakers and visual artists", said Nikitin, congratulating this author on his entire work in the last few decades, but also on the fact that he discussed artificial intelligence back in 1996.

Mika Taanila said that this is a great award and that receiving it was a deeply emotional experience: "I really like the name of the award. Not for the best film ever made or anything like that, but for the spirit, the essence. As I accept this fantastic award, I promise to keep an open mind and curiosity in the future as well."

The Abazija Cinema will feature Taanila’s short films as part of the Underground Spirit Award Laureate Homage program. The films Patent No. 314805, A Physical Ring, The World, Optical Sound, and Future Is Not What It Used to Be will be screened on Monday, July 22. at 10 p.m., and the film Failed Emptiness on Tuesday, July 23, at 10 p.m.

Taanila’s projects often explore the interaction between man and machine. His experimental films have been screened at international film festivals and special events such as Berlinale, TIFF Toronto, IFFR Rotterdam, CPH, Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, Midnight Sun Film Festival, IDFA Amsterdam and Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen.

Taanila's audio-visual installations and collage works have been exhibited in many solo and group exhibitions, including the Venice Biennale (2017), Aichi Triennale (2013), Kassel Documenta (2012), Shanghai Biennale (2006), Berlin Biennale (2004) and Manifesta 4 in Frankfurt (2002). He has had solo exhibitions at Padiglione de l'Esprit Nouveau in Bologna (2020), Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma in Helsinki (2013–14), the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis (2013), TENT, Rotterdam (2013), Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe (2008), Dazibao, Montreal (2007) and Migrosmuseum, Zurich (2005). He is one of the founders of the film production company Testifilmi, which is run by artists.