Pilvi Takala’s The Stroker was awarded with Honourable Mention at Nordisk Panorama, held from September 19–24 in Malmö. The Jury states: “The film depict the discomfort of superficial intimacy when a strange concept is introduced in the workplace. A simple gesture provokes different reactions and behaviours. We appreciate the directors conceptual and humorous approach.”
Premiered at IFF Rotterdam and screened previously e.g. at Hot Docs and ISFF Oberhausen, The Stroker is based on Pilvi 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‘s (b. 1981) 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.
Nordisk Panorama, September 19–24 2019, Malmö, Sweden
More information: Nordisk Panorama