High Line Announces New Pilvi Takala Performance, a Co-Commission with Frieze

Pilvi Takala, Close Watch, 2022. Video still Image © Pilvi Takala 2022. Courtesy the artist; Carlos/Ishikawa, London; and Stigter van Doesburg, Amsterdam.

The Pin, Takala’s Performative Intervention, Takes Place May 7, 9, and 11, during Frieze Week 2025

The High Line today announced that artist Pilvi Takala will present The Pin, a new performance created through improvised social interactions in the park, on May 7, 9, and 11 in conjunction with Frieze Week. The seemingly happenstance performance uses the social expectations of engaging with others in shared space as a catalyst for exploring what may bring strangers to connect, or not, and the related feelings that may arise. The performance will take place on the High Line and within Frieze Art Fair at The Shed at undisclosed locations at differing times each day. The Pin is a co-commission by High Line Art and Frieze and is being curated by High Line Art’s associate curator, Taylor Zakarin. This is the second performance co-commissioned by High Line Art and Frieze, preceded by Matty Davis’ Die No Die (The High Line) in 2024.

“Pilvi Takala adeptly exposes the fragile foundations that undergird our ingrained social contracts and manners,” said Taylor Zakarin, associate curator of High Line Art. “The current moment is such a complex yet pivotal time to consider what can make strangers feel more intimately connected or excluded from one another. The diversity of interactions that take place on the High Line make the park a ripe environment for Takala’s performance to inspire such contemplation.”

For the High Line, Pilvi Takala has created The Pin, a new performance that continues her work playing with social codes. The Pin is performed by actors who, trained on a script by Takala, improvise spontaneous interactions with unsuspecting passersby. In setting up these exchanges, Takala makes visible how we grapple with polite contact, inclusion, and exclusion, while blurring the line between reality and fiction.

The Pin will take place at the following times and locations:

• Wednesday, May 7

The Shed: 12pm – 1:30pm

On the High Line, along 30th Street: 2pm – 3:30pm

• Friday, May 9

The Shed: 3pm – 4:30pm

On the High Line, along 30th Street: 5pm – 6:30pm

• Sunday, May 11

On the High Line, along 30th Street: 11am – 12:30pm

The Shed: 1pm – 2:30pm

Pilvi Takala’s practice is centered on poking, prodding, and questioning conventions and codes in an effort to lay bare the social frameworks of our offices, parks, shopping malls, and other public spaces. The artist disrupts the experience of our daily routines, using performative interventions as a means to push us to confront our own assumptions and behaviors. Often humorous—and almost always perplexing—her actions and interactions reveal our inherent discomfort with discomfort.

ADDITIONAL PERFORMANCE BY ASAD RAZA IN COLLABORATION WITH FRIEZE

In addition to Takala’s commissioned performance, High Line Art also collaborates with Frieze on Immortal Coil, a new participatory artwork by Asad Raza. Immortal Coil comprises an installation at The Shed, the site of the Frieze NY Art Fair, and a procession along the length of the High line. Drawing from the natural landscape of the High Line, the work incorporates seedlings, cuttings and clippings from High Line plants, selected with guidance from Richard Hayden, the High Line’s Senior Director of Horticulture. On Saturday, May 10, at 11am, Raza will lead a collective walk along the High Line, during which participants will be given a seedling to carry with them. At the end of the walk, they will be encouraged to take their plant home—creating a lasting, living connection between the city and the installation. Immortal Coil will also feature original music composed for the plants by musician and artist Kelsey Lu, and a live lecture by environmental writer Zoë Schlanger, offering a meditation on regeneration and ecological memory. Immortal Coil focuses on the endless generation of plant life, through sunlight and soil, and reproduces the High Line’s plantings on a miniature scale as souvenirs to distribute to the people of New York City. For more information, visit frieze.com.

ABOUT PILVI TAKALA

Pilvi Takala (b. 1981, Helsinki, Finland) lives and works in Berlin, Germany and Helsinki, Finland. Takala represented Finland at the 59th Venice Biennale in 2022. Her work has also been shown at FACT Liverpool, Liverpool, England (2024); Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zurich, Switzerland (2023); Goldsmiths Centre for Contemporary Art, London, England (2023); Pavilion of MUNCH Triennale, Oslo, Norway (2022); Seoul Mediacity Biennale, Seoul, South Korea (2021); Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Moscow, Russia (2021); Künstlerhaus Bremen, Bremen, Germany (2019); Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Helsinki, Finland (2018); Centre for Contemporary Arts Glasgow, Glasgow, Scotland (2016); Manifesta 11, Zurich, Switzerland (2016); Centre Pompidou, Paris, France (2015); MoMA PS1, New York, New York (2014); among many others.

ABOUT HIGH LINE ART

Founded in 2009, High Line Art commissions and produces a wide array of artworks on the High Line, including site-specific commissions, exhibitions, performances, video programs, and a series of billboard interventions. Led by Cecilia Alemani, the Donald R. Mullen, Jr. Director & Chief Curator of High Line Art, and presented by the High Line, the art program invites artists to think of creative ways to engage with the unique architecture, history, and design of the park, and to foster a productive dialogue with the surrounding neighborhood and urban landscape.

For further information on High Line Art, please visit thehighline.org/art.

ABOUT THE HIGH LINE

The High Line is both a nonprofit organization and a public park on the West Side of Manhattan. Through our work with communities on and off the High Line, we’re devoted to reimagining public spaces to create connected, healthy neighborhoods and cities.

Built on a historic, elevated rail line, the High Line was always intended to be more than a park. You can walk through the gardens, view art, experience a performance, enjoy food or beverage, or connect with friends and neighbors—all while enjoying a unique perspective of New York City.

Nearly 100% of our annual budget comes through donations. The High Line is owned by the City of New York and we operate under a license agreement with NYC Parks.

For more information, visit thehighline.org and follow us on Facebook, X, Instagram.

SUPPORT

Lead support for High Line Art comes from Amanda and Don Mullen. Major support is provided by Shelley Fox Aarons and Philip E. Aarons, The Brown Foundation, Inc. of Houston, and Charina Endowment Fund.

High Line Art is supported, in part, with public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature, and from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the New York City Council, under the leadership of Speaker Adrienne Adams.

Pilvi Takala, The Pin, 2025, is co-commissioned by High Line Art and Frieze.

@HighLineArtNYC #PilviTakala @asaaddo