London, UK. Frieze is pleased to announce that the recipient of the 2013 Emdash Award is Pilvi Takala. The Emdash Award allows an emerging artist based outside the UK to realise a major project at Frieze London as part of the critically acclaimed Frieze Projects programme.

Takala’s proposal was selected from over 550 applications by artists from across the world. Takala has chosen to give the opportunity to devise and realise the Emdash Award in 2013 to a group of children. As a starting point for the project, Takala will establish a committee of children, around the age of 12, who in a series of workshops will decide on the final form and scope of the project. By working with this committee Takala aims to establish a collective decision-making process with an outcome that has the potential for children to operate as equals, with a common ground and language. The workshops will take place ahead of the fair, over a three-month period, and will be led by Pilvi Takala and artist and educator Polly Brannan. The committee’s final decisions will be presented at Frieze London 2013.

Pilvi Takala (b. 1981) is a Finnish artist who lives and works in Istanbul. Takala has previously worked with video to document experimental performances that challenge silently agreed rules within particular communities of people. Takala acts as both an observer and participant in these groups – be it a collective of co-workers, a group sharing the same interest or a crowd of consumers. By intervening in these communities Takala questions the groups’ organising logic and reveals unexpected aspects of social structures in public and semi-public spaces.

Nicola Lees, curator of Frieze Projects said:

The Emdash Award is supported by the Emdash Foundation, a private foundation with a mission to support new ideas and emerging talent across disciplines, from the arts and cultural projects to science.

Andrea Dibelius, founder of the Emdash Foundation, commented:

In 2013, the residency of the Emdash Award winner will once again be developed in partnership with Gasworks.

Pilvi Takala studied at the Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki and Glasgow School of Art. Recent solo shows include: ‘Slight Chance’ at Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm; and ‘Random Numbers’ at Carlos/Ishikawa,

London. Recent group shows include: ‘Nouvelles vagues’ at Palais de Tokyo, Paris ; ‘Maintenance Required’ at The Kitchen, New York and ‘Apparatus Criticus & Locus’ at Künstlerhaus Stuttgart.

Frieze London will take place 17–20 October 2013 in Regent’s Park, London and will present over 150 of the world’s leading contemporary galleries. Frieze London is sponsored by Deutsche Bank.

Additional support for the Emdash Award 2013 has been provided by Frame, the Finnish visual art agency.