Eli Cortiñas is a video artist of Cuban descent. Her artistic practice can be located within the appropriation tradition, using already existing audiovisual material to de- and identities as well as hegemonic narratives. Her collage-like video essays and accompanying installations mix found imagery with documentary strategies.

She was a guest professor at the Art Academy Kassel and the Art Academy Mainz and shared a professorship for Spatial Concepts with Candice Breitz at the University of Art Braunschweig from 2019 till 2022. Cortiñas has recently been appointed professor for Media Art at the Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig. Her work views film as a collective memory, connecting historical footage with contemporary perspectives.

Cortiñas has received numerous grants and residencies, including Fundación Botín, Kunstfonds, Villa Massimo, Berlin Senate, Villa Sträuli, Goethe Institute, Kölnischer Kunstverein, Rupert and Karl-Schmidt-Rottluff among others.

Her work has been presented in solo and group exhibitions at institutions such as Museum Ludwig, Kunsthalle Budapest, CAC Vilnius, SCHIRN Kunsthalle, SAVVY Contemporary, Kunstverein Braunschweig, Museum Marta Herford, Kunstraum Innsbruck, Centro Atlántico de Arte Moderno, Centre Georges Pompidou, Museum of Modern Art Moscow, Kunstmuseum Bonn and MUSAC et al., as well as in international Biennials and festivals such as Ural Industrial Biennial, Riga Biennale, Moscow International Biennale for Young Art, Mardin Biennale, International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, International Curtas Vila Do Conde and Nashville Film Festival et al.