Two videos by Nina Lassila are in included in a group exhibition S_HE DEVIL 12, presented from June 8–13 as a collaboration between Studio Stefania Miscetti and MAXXI, the National Museum of 21st Century Arts, Rome.

The videos are Woman with a Knife (2010) and Ich bin Neutrum (2018).

In Woman with a Knife (in featured image), we see a woman sitting down on a carpet sharpening many knifes that she keeps in a red suitcase. She is doing it fast and somewhat furiously. Her face is not visible. When she is finsihed she closes the suitcase, gets up and leaves the frame.

In Ich bin Neutrum, we see a person talking to the camera in French. It is obvious that French is not her native language. She talks about the difficulties one faces being a stranger, the other. It is important to learn languages but is it possible to integrate completely? To which degree do languages define and form us? The English subtitles have been translated as incorrectly as the French spoken in the video. The video reflects on questions of language, gender and integration.

Nina Lassila is a visual artist born 1974 in Helsinki, Finland currently living and working in Belgium. Nina Lassila works mainly with video and performance. In many of her works she deals with questions of identity – specifically identity affected by social barriers, conventions based on gender and upbringing and cultural differences. In addition, she is interested in exploring issues such as supernatural phenomena, art and economic structures. She has participated in several international group shows and video festivals. Education: Swedish Polytechnics FIN 1994-1997, School of Photography & film Gothenburg SE 2000-2002, Valand School of Fine Arts Gothenburg SE (MFA) 2004-2006, Guest student at ENSAD Paris 2009. 

S_HE DEVIL is born of the desire to offer as faithful a picture as possible of the complex reality we’re living in. At the same time, it aspires to paint a picture of how regrettably binary, static and reductive conceptual frameworks may be overcome. In addition, the MAXXI selection, curated by Eleonora Farina, narrates fifteen years of the history of SHE DEVIL through an excursus of 15 video works presented in the previous editions. 

S_HE DEVIL 12, June 8–13 2021, Studio Stefania Miscetti and MAXXI, the National Museum of 21st Century Arts, Rome, Italy

More information: Studio Stefania Miscetti