Marita Liulia

”My recipe is to combine art, research and technology and to spice it with pinch of humour
and a considerable dose of beauty.”

Marita Liulia is a versatile visual artist and a pioneer of interactive multimedia.
Her production includes media art works, photography, painting and stage performances.
Her works have been exhibited and performed in over 40 countries.

Liulia studied literature and political history at Helsinki University and visual arts at the University of Art and Design in Helsinki. Her artistic career started in the theatre and she worked with various visual artforms in the 1980s.

She extended her work to include digital and interactive media in 1991 with Jackpot, a CD-ROM on the world of advertisements. Maire, a study of modernism released in 1994, was one of the first artworks to be published in CD-ROM format. Ambitious Bitch, a colourful CD-ROM about femininity (1996), marked her international breakthrough. SOB (Son of a Bitch), a CD-ROM about men and masculinity, followed in 1999.

Marita Liulia Tarot was published in six different formats and ten languages in 2000-2004. Marita Liulia´s recent project, Choosing My Religion about the major religions of the world, had premiere in 2009.

In 2001 Liulia returned to the theatre, with the works Manipulator and Animator, which were created collaboratively with musician-composer Kimmo Pohjonen. Hunt, a dance performance realized together with choreographer-dancer Tero Saarinen, has become something of a cult classic.

Liulia has received numerous awards, including the Prix Ars Electronica in Austria (1996) and Prix Möbius International in France (1996, 1999). She has also received the Finland Prize, the Finnish Cultural Fund Prize, Erik Enroth Prize and Stina Krook Foundation Prize (2008) for her achievements as an artist.