Internationally renowned artist Pilvi Takala stretches the limits of documentary making and performance within her works.
Takala’s films emerge out of time spent with a particular community, where she uses performative interventions as a means to process social structures and question the normative rules and truths of our behaviour in different cultural contexts, showing that it is often possible to learn about the implicit rules of a social situation only by its disruption.
The programme includes; Real Snow White, 2009, (9:19) which exposes the absurd logic of ‘real character’ within the extremely regulated construct of Disneyland, when Takala is banned from entering the park in a Snow White costume; Players, 2010, (7:52) a portrayal of six poker professionals in Bangkok, who follow the logic of the game in their everyday lives to ensure that they treat each other justly and contribute equally; Workers’ Forum , 2015, (6:23) an animated message conversation, the idea for which developed from Takala’s experience working for a service where users pay to have a pretend girlfriend or boyfriend texting them; and The Stroker, 2019, (15:16) based on a two-week-long intervention by Takala at a trendy East London co-working space for young entrepreneurs and startups, during which she posed as a wellness consultant named Nina Nieminen, providing touching services in the workplace.
Pilvi Takala will travel to Cornwall to talk about her work on the evening of Friday 1 November.
Pilvi Takala’s screenings and talk are presented at CAST with the generous support of the Finnish Institute in London