25 Sep 2014

Pilvi Takala at Tartu Art Museum

For Tartu Art Museum, showing contemporary art by the most important artists from our neighbouring countries, alongside our own collection of Estonian contemporary art has developed into a tradition. This year we have chosen Pilvi Takala from Finland, one of the most distinctive and productive artists amongst the younger generation active and in the international art scene today.

Pilvi Takala's primary creative method is performative interventions into everyday rituals among different communities and through them experimental research into public space and prevailing social attitudes. She does not produce conceptual objects nor does she objectify concepts, her artistic practice is practice in its most direct sense – it is consistent, continuous and based on carefully planned activities. It is often simultaneously an action and a state of being that is presented in art spaces through edited and post-produced documentation. Each of her new works pushes the limits of her practice further, testing different strategies, and solving more and more complex situations. Pilvi often positions herself in the midst of experiments. Sometimes a seemingly trivial gesture leads to a conflict situation or confrontation, sometimes it gives an exciting inside view into a community's attitudes and behavioural patterns. The artist's intervening gestures are generally carefully staged-managed events, documentation of which we experience in the exhibition.

Pilvi Takala (born1981 in Helsinki, lives and works in Helsinki and Istanbul) graduated from the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki (2006), and was a resident at the Rijksakademie, Amsterdam (2009-2010). She has participated in the international art scene since 2004, with solo shows at Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm (2013), Kunsthalle Erfurt (2012), SKOR, Amsterdam (2010), and Kiasma, Helsinki (2009) among others. Her works have been presented in numerous art institutions around the world, including MoMA PS1, New York (2013), Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2013), 53. October Salon, Belgrade (2012), 4th Bucharest Biennial (2010), 5th Berlin Biennial (2008) and 9th Istanbul Biennial (2005). She was the 2013 winner of the Emdash Award, Frieze London. www.pilvitakala.com

This exhibition at Tartu Art Museum is Pilvi Takala's first comprehensive solo exhibition in the context of an art museum and it is a great honour and pleasure for us to host her and to produce this exhibition.

The exhibition 'Attires and Attitudes' is accompanied by a publication that contains an interview with Pilvi Takala about her practices of art and life. 32 pages, in English and Estonian available here: issuu.com/raelartel/docs/takala_tam_catalogue-issuu_27082014.

Tartu Art Museum is grateful to Pilvi Takala and her family for this collaboration.

Exhibition team:
Director of Tartu Art Museum: Rael Artel
Exhibition curator, booklet editor: Rael Artel
Exhibition and booklet designer: Epp Õlekõrs
Installation team: Hanna-Liis Kont (coordinator); Arvi Kuld, Kristjan Nagla, Reimo Võsa-Tangsoo (technicians), Angela Adamson (volunteer)
Special thanks: Vanessa Carlos, Naomi Pearce, Will Rees, Carlos/Ishikawa, London
Supporters: Estonian Cultural Endowment, Frame Visual Art Finland

Welcome to the museum!


!!! Check out our previous activities:

FREE PUBLICATION: Is This The Museum We Wanted?
issuu.com/tartmus/docs/kataloog_a5_eng_f03-2

'Is This The Museum We Wanted?' is a brief guide to DIY museology, based on true stories and outstanding artworks. The publication accompanies a scandalous show 'Is This The Museum We Wanted?' at Tartu Art Museum discussing the issues every museum faces in the twenty-first century.
Participating artists include Johanna Billing, Cyprien Gaillard, Toril Johannessen, Flo Kasearu, Tamas Kaszas ja Aniko Lorant, Kristi Kongi, Edward von Lõngus, MinaJaLydia, Müra2000, Jo Nurm, Dan Perjovschi, Jaanus Samma, Jaan Toomik, Jevgeni Zolotko; curated by Rael Artel


ONLINE GALLERY: Archeological Festival_ a second hand history and improbable obsessions (Curator Maria Arusoo): tartmus.ee/files/wordpress/?page_id=45&lang=en

'Archeological Festival_ a second hand history and improbable obsessions' originates from the obsession with the 'askew' situations of the present and reflects on them by glancing at different layers of time and space. The question under investigation is the nature of representation – the complex relationship between the world and its image. The exhibition travels through many layers and deconstructs physical and mental space through the archeological method of trying to get closer to the question of how we depict the world and whether it is possible at all. The dialectics between outside and inside, between the real world and the museum world, is important for its conception.

Participating artists include Kaisa Eiche & Urmo Mets, Elmgreen & Dragset, Denes Farkas, Cyprien Gaillard, David Ferrando Giraut, Paul Kuimet, Ragnar Helgi Olafsson, Triin Tamm, Simon van Til, Salla Tykkä, Anu Vahtra, Mare Vint; curated by Maria Arusoo

In case you plan to visit Tartu Art Museum, please let us know, we would be happy to have a coffee and a chat with you!

Welcome!!!