Marjo Viitala’s Mirror (2019, in featured image) and Pilvi Takala’s The Stroker (2019) were selected for the 33th Braunschweig International Film Festival, held from November 19–24 in Germany.
The Stroker will be screened in the programme “Different Touch” on Friday, November 22, at 19:00, in LOT Theater. The Stroker is based on Takala’s two week-long intervention at Second Home, a trendy East London coworking space for young entrepreneurs and startups. During the intervention Takala posed as a wellness consultant named Nina Nieminen, the founder of cutting-edge company Personnel Touch who were allegedly employed by Second Home to provide touching services in the workplace.
Pilvi Takala lives and works between Berlin and Helsinki. Her video works are based on performative interventions in which she researches specific communities in order to process social structures and question the normative rules and truths of our behaviour in different contexts. Her works show that it is often possible to learn about the implicit rules of a social situation only by its disruption. Her work has been shown in MoMA PS1 and New Museum, Kiasma, Palais de Tokyo, Kunsthalle Basel, Manifesta 11, Witte de With, and the 9th Istanbul Biennial. Takala won the Dutch Prix de Rome in 2011 and the Emdash Award and Finnish State Prize for Visual Arts in 2013.
Mirror is included in the programme “Terribly Warm-Hearted“, screened on Saturday, November 23, at 13:00 in LOT Theater. Mirror is a study on how longing for love and acceptance gets us to pursue the company of others. However, we tend to let some people closer than others. The same principles and rules do not apply to everyone.
Marjo Viitala is a director and a media artist holding an MA in film from Stocholm Academy of Dramatic Arts. She creates both narrative drama and conceptual art. Using different methods, Viitala tries to make the performers forget themselves and let the subtle hints of their bodies and expressions reveal their inner worlds in the present moments.
The 33th Braunschweig International Film Festival, November 19–24 2019, Germany
More information: Braunschweig IFF