Pilvi Takala

Pilvi Takala (born 1981, Helsinki) is a performance artist presenting candid camera as art. Takala won the Dutch Prix de Rome in 2011 and the Emdash Award in 2013. Her works have been exhibited in various exhibitions worldwide, including London, Aarhus and Glasgow. She is known best for being in time-based media. In 2022, Takala represented Finland in the 59th Venice Biennale.

Takala lives in Helsinki and Berlin.

Personal life and education Pilvi Takala was born and grew up in Helsinki. She was educated at the Institute of Fine Arts from 2000–2001, had Bachelor in Fine Art (2005) and Master of Fine Arts (2006) from the Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki. In 2004 she spent six months at Glasgow School of Art on an exchange programme.

In the recent years Takala is moving from country to country, having lived and performed in Scotland, the Netherlands and Turkey.

Career Takala's initial work focuses on interventions in everyday life. She treats her body as an artistic material, using it in different predicaments. By doing this she shows that her feelings are evolving in the course of an intervention to reveal the different expectations of society.

Style Takala mixes in her work the reality of documented actions with staged portraiture. Her works explore conduct enforced but not necessarily written down or discussed – social unspoken rules that are exposed only when someone like Takala runs counter them.

Performances For her early slide show installation and artist's book Bag Lady (2006) she wandered for a week in a Berlin shopping mall with a lot of cash in a transparent plastic bag to observe the reaction of the people around: suspicion from security guards and disdain from shopkeepers.

In another work of her, an installation and video project The Trainee (2008), Takala secretly filmed herself sitting motionless and doing nothing or riding the whole day long in the elevator during her internship in the marketing department at accountancy firm Deloitte. The artwork aimed to shake up everyday life in the office and show other employees’ reactions to Takala's unconventional working methods. Her actions made other coworkers uneasy and resulted in them report HR manager about her behavior.

In Real Snow White (2009) Takala dressed herself as Snow White and attempted to buy a ticket to enter Euro Disney. The video reveals the inability of Euro Disney employees to adequately explain why she can't enter like any other visitor who wants to visit the theme park. As a result, the Committee made a decision to create ‘a five-star bouncy castle’. Takala calls her giving money to these kids and the knowledge that children have control and reactions this causes in the world ‘a performative action’.

In the video installation The Stroker (2018) filmed at Second Home, a co-working space in London, Takala moves through the building and greets the members of Second Home gently touching them on the arm or shoulder. These gestures of care and attention subvert established rules of office conduct, provoking some strong reactions such as visible discomfort, nervousness and tension that are reenacted through facial expressions, bodily movements, silence or awkward verbal exchanges.

By touching people Takala probes at the complexities of personal boundaries and individual attitudes toward touch, particularly in the workplace. Her aim is to challenge some kind of boundary in non-aggressive way.

Work

Filmography

Amusement Park (2001, short) Women in Kahves (2005, instal) The Switch (2005, instal) Seinäruusu/Wallflower (2006, short) Easy Rider (2006, short) The Shining Shining (2007, instal) Kuuluttaja/The Announcer (2007, short) The Angels (2008, short) The Messengers (2008, instal) Real Snow White (2009, short) Players (2010, short) Among Others (2001–2010, instal) Broad Sense (2012, instal) Drive with Care (2014, short) The Stroker (2019, short) If Your Heart Wants It (Remix) (2020, short) Close Watch (2022, instal)

Major exhibitions

Solo exhibitions 2023 Close Watch, KØS Museum of Art in Public Spaces, Køge Close Watch, Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zürich On Discomfort, Goldsmiths CCA, London 2022 Close Watch, Finnish Pavilion, 59th International Art Exhibition – Venice Biennale, Venice 2021 Sweat Equity, Krieg, Hasselt (online) 2018 Second Shift, Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Helsinki The Stroker, Carlos/Ishikawa, London 2016 Kunsthal Aarhus, Denmark The Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow, Scotland Workers Forum, YAMA, Istanbul 2015 Invisible Friend, Helsinki Contemporary Give a little bit, Collaboration with Amelie Befeldt, Alkovi, Helsinki The Committee, Stacion – Centre for Contemporary Art, Prishtina, Kosovo 2014 Lawyer Of The Week, Futura Centre For Contemporary Art, Prague, Czech Republic Attires and Attitudes, Tartu Art Museum, Estonia 2013 Slight Chance, Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm, Sweden; Fabra I Coats, Centre D'Art Contemporani, Barcelona, Spain 2012 Random Numbers, Carlos/Ishikawa, London, UK Aside, P74 Gallery, Ljubljana, Slovenia Breaching Experiments, Site Gallery, Sheffield, UK Disappearing Act, Galerie Diana Stigter, Amsterdam, the Netherlands (featuring Siri Baggerman) Suggested Value, Künstlerhaus Bremen, Germany 2018 Second Shift, Kiasma and Garret Publications, 2018 2012 Pilvi Takala: Just when I thought I was out...they pull me back in monograph published by Hatje Cantz, Germany 2008 Younger Than Jesus Artist Directory, Phaidon and The New Museum, New York 2007 Pilvi Takala: Between Sharing and Caring, exhibition catalogue, Frac des Pays de La Loire Bag Lady, Istanbul 2005 Event on Garnethill, Helsinki 2003 Kuvasto, Helsinki

Awards and nominations

2013 State Prize for Visual Arts, Finland 2013 Emdash Award, Frieze London 2013 Akseli Gallen-Kallela Award, Kalevala Society, FI 2011 Prix de Rome Visual Arts 1st Prize, The Netherlands 2011 Stuttgart Film Winter, Norman Prixe for Best Short Film, DE 2010 Kettupäivät Festival, Best Experimental Film 2007 Tampere Art Film Festival, 1st Prize 2007 Helsinki Short Film Festival, Best Experimental Film, FI