Pilvi Takala employs performance and video to expose tacitly accepted norms and behaviors in different social situations. To develop the performative interventions shown in her video works, the artist first researches the communities that form around specific social circumstances, such as being passengers on public transportation, queuing to enter a theme park, or even attending events for startup companies. The artist then inserts herself, or another performer, into the situation and enacts subtle disruptions that reveal how individual responses commonly conform to a range of conventional roles. Takala graduated in 2006 with an MFA from the Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki, after studying Environmental Art at the Glasgow School of Art. Selected to represent Finland at the 59th Venice Biennale, scheduled for 2022, she has held solo exhibitions at institutions including Kiasma, Helsinki (2018), and the Kunsthal Aarhus in Denmark and Centre for Contemporary Arts Glasgow (both 2016). International exhibitions include Manifesta 11 (2016) and the 5th Moscow Biennale (2013). Among Takala’s many awards and distinctions are the Finnish State Prize for Visual Arts (2013) and the Dutch Prix de Rome (2011).