Marja Viitahuhta is a Helsinki-based visual artist and filmmaker who grew up in the Inari region in Northern Finland. Her works are often based on archive materials, interviews and collaboration. She sets the visual elements in each work in dialogue with its narrative or audial material.
She holds a BA degree in performance art from the Turku Arts Academy and an MFA degree from the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts.
Her works have been screened, exhibited and performed at international film and media art festivals, in gallery and museum spaces, in public spaces as well as online and on television. She has been awarded internationally at Cannes Film Festival, Stuttgarter Filmwinter, Mediawave and L’Alternativa. Her works have been acquired to public collections by the MoMA (New York, USA), Saastamoinen Foundation (Espoo, Finland) and Kiasma Contemporary Art Museum (Helsinki, Finland).
Since 2019 she has collaborated with the musicians Ánnámáret (yoiking), Ilkka Heinonen (carelian bowed lyre) and Turkka Inkilä (electronics) since 2019, creating visual counterparts to their music, publishing a series of video works and performing in live concerts combining the moving image and the music. In addition to her artistic work Viitahuhta has worked as an art teacher and lecturer.