Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Most of us are aware of the tacit rules that shape our behaviour in public. Look busy when you\u2019re at work. Don\u2019t be overly familiar with colleagues. Never flash your cash. Finnish artist Pilvi Takala \u2014 the star of Frieze New York\u2019s performance programme \u2014 stages elaborate encounters that expose and question these norms. \u201cThe boundaries are always there and they\u2019re not good or bad,\u201d she says. \u201cBut what they are, how they are negotiated, who decides, the process \u2014 this is all interesting.\u201dWe meet at her workspace in Berlin. Despite the discomfort her work provokes, Takala is funny and candid in person. Often assuming a character or costume, the artist has infiltrated offices, shopping malls and amusement parks, deliberately testing the boundaries of acceptable conduct. In \u201cBag Lady\u201d (2006), she wandered through a shopping centre with a clear plastic bag full of cash. For \u201cThe Stroker\u201d (2018), she posed as a wellness consultant hired to improve employee wellbeing by providing \u201ctouching services\u201d at a trendy co-working space. And in \u201cThe Trainee\u201d (2008), she worked as an intern at Deloitte, spending a month riding the elevators or staring into space \u2014 much to her colleagues\u2019 confusion.I provoke a variety of reactions and there\u2019s some kind of negotiation. What I\u2019m interested in is how this negotiation becomes more explicit Captured on film, Takala\u2019s works have evolved from using hidden camera footage to staged reenactments with actors. Often humorous, they are also excruciatingly awkward to watch. Does she ever feel uncomfortable creating them? \u201cI feel it, but I have a different attitude towards it than in actual life,\u201d she replies. \u201cThose feelings are information about boundaries. It\u2019s like, oh, this feels really awkward so it\u2019s good. I look at those feelings as guidance, as something productive.\u201dTakala recalls first becoming intrigued by the concept of social pressure \u201cat a very young age\u201d, during visits to a cousin who lived in another part of Finland. Often accompanying her to school, she noticed how her status as a visiting student exempted her from the need to fit in. \u201cI remember that being really fantastic,\u201d she says. \u201cI didn\u2019t have that group pressure that comes when you\u2019re stuck with the same class for many years.\u201dSocial expectations would later become central to Takala\u2019s disarming art, which often highlights their absurdity. In \u201cThe Trainee\u201d, her inaction prompted colleagues to send concerned emails to managers about \u201ca girl with a glazed look in her eyes\u201d, or avoid her altogether \u2014 all because she didn\u2019t disguise her lack of productivity with something more acceptable, like browsing Facebook. A similar sense of hypocrisy was laid bare in \u201cReal Snow White\u201d (2009), when Takala attempted to enter Disneyland Paris dressed as the princess, only to be blocked by security guards who felt she too closely resembled the \u201creal\u201d character. \u201cIf I show up [at Disneyland] and people think I\u2019m Snow White, but I do something off-brand, then chaos is loose, almost like we are in some dark fantasy,\u201d she says. \u201cWhen there is perfection, one crack will create a total disaster.\u201dFinding those cracks isn\u2019t always easy, but that\u2019s how Takala prefers it. \u201cIf something is so forbidden that everybody knows we don\u2019t want this, it\u2019s not interesting,\u201d she says. \u201cBut I choose to do something that provokes a variety of reactions and there\u2019s some kind of negotiation. What I\u2019m interested in is how this negotiation becomes more explicit. Sometimes, like in \u2018The Stroker\u2019, it\u2019s not verbal.\u201dIn the filmed reenactment, many employees physically distance themselves from her as she reaches out to gently tap them on the shoulder, squirming away or quickening their pace as they walk past. But their reactions also hint at uncertainty: was this something they should actually feel comfortable with? Set against the backdrop of a plant-filled office with meditation rooms and transparent walls, their responses clash with the carefully curated image of wellness that corporate environments love to promote.\u201cWhat provoked me about that space is that it\u2019s this created community,\u201d says Takala. \u201cWellness is part of your performance of being productive. Seemingly everything\u2019s open and there\u2019s no hierarchy, but actually there\u2019s a lot of hierarchy. There\u2019s a lot of expectation.\u201dBut Takala isn\u2019t just interested in poking fun at everyday formalities. For \u201cClose Watch\u201d, her presentation for the Finnish Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2022, the artist worked as a guard in a mall for a large Finnish private security company for six months. Whilst on the job she witnessed colleagues making racist jokes and using excessive force. The experience offered her an insight into the troubling consequences of a private company exerting control over public space \u2014 and granting authority to individuals with minimal training (Takala herself qualified for the job after completing a four-week course).\u201cIn Finland the presence of private security has grown visibly in the past 15 years,\u201d she says. \u201cI always empathised with that job, because it\u2019s not like you\u2019re the police, but you\u2019re kind of always the joke in between. But a single guard actually has a lot of agency and decision-making power over a member of the public, and if you do something wrong in their opinion, they have the right to use force. At the same time many of them feel they don\u2019t have agency because they\u2019re not respected or paid well.\u201dIt was this tension between authority and powerlessness that Takala was interested in exploring. After leaving the job, she invited some of her ex-colleagues to take part in a filmed theatre workshop with actors where they rehearsed de-escalating tense scenarios, such as managing an intoxicated individual. Taking place across three days, these sessions also allowed the guards to open up about how they felt unable to intervene when witnessing discrimination or misconduct from other colleagues. The film resonated beyond the art world, motivating the security company to introduce anti-racism training. Still, Takala maintains that her work isn\u2019t about offering clear-cut solutions.\u201cI\u2019m not saying: let\u2019s have this training for everyone and it\u2019s all going to be good,\u201d she explains. \u201cIt\u2019s more complex. What I want is to be constructive, not just say there are problems, because we all know that it\u2019s a hugely problematic industry. It was about asking what those problems were, how they affect the single person and what agency does the one guard have.\u201dRecently Takala has shifted her focus from private to national security. \u201cThe Pin\u201d, her new work commissioned by Frieze and High Line Art, is loosely inspired by her experience taking part in a Finnish national defence course. Towards the end of our conversation, she speaks passionately about her opposition to Finland\u2019s arms deal with Israel, citing the ongoing bombardment of Gaza. Military themes, she says, are something she hopes to engage with in future exhibitions. \u201cHaving taken part in that course, maybe I have a bit more of the language for it now,\u201d she reflects. \u201cBut it still feels like the job of a certain type of older man to talk about this. There\u2019s still all these boundaries and old hierarchies that pop up, even if you feel like society has changed.\u201dfrieze.comFind out about our latest stories first \u2014 follow FT Weekend on Instagram and X, and sign up to receive the FT Weekend newsletter every Saturday morning<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Most of us are aware of the tacit rules that shape our behaviour in public. Look busy when you\u2019re at work. Don\u2019t be overly familiar with colleagues. Never flash your cash. Finnish artist Pilvi Takala \u2014 the star of Frieze New York\u2019s performance programme<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":296997,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-296996","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-culture"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=296996"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296996\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":296998,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296996\/revisions\/296998"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/296997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}