Close Watch

Close Watch
Photo: Katharina Dießner.

Original title: Close Watch
Title in Finnish: Valvonnan alla
Genre: Documentary
Duration: appr. 30’
Artist & Director: Pilvi Takala
Artist’s Assistant: Tuure Leppänen
DOPs: Katharina Dießner, Hannu-Pekka Vitikainen
Sound Recording: Jyri Pirinen
Graphic Design: Anne Virta
Trailer: Alison Taylor
Finance: Development: Finnish Film Foundation / Iris Olsson.
The film has been developed as part of AVEK Mediarata project.
Producer: Tuuli Penttinen-Lampisuo / Poike Productio

Visual artist Pilvi Takala wants to study the business of the security industry and works as a security guard in a shopping center. The documentary film follows a drama workshop organized by the artist, where Takala and her colleagues discuss the verbal and physical situations of the use of power and force they encounter in their work. The film questions the survival strategies adopted by security guards and sparks a debate about the responsibility of the entire undervalued and underregulated industry.

Poike Productio is producing a documentary film version of Pilvi Takala’s three-channel video installation Close Watch, which premiered in the 59th Venice Biennale 2022, commissioned & produced by Frame Finland, curated by Christina Li and financed by Saastamoinen Foundation & AVEK / Milla Moilanen.
At EMMA, Close Watch was presented 2023 in a new display responding to the museum’s architecture, accompanied by an indepth public programme. The exhibition was a part of InCollection series of collaborative exhibitions between EMMA and Saastamoinen Foundation.