Nathalie Djurberg & Hans Berg: Death or Eternal Delight

Nathalie Djurberg and Hans Berg present their first exhibition in Norway since 2020. The duo has been active on the international art scene since 2004, and after winning the Silver Lion at the Venice Biennale in 2009, the clay figures from their animated films have found their way off the screen. Glossy flowers, flapping birds and gold-plated beavers have been given physical bodies and occupied the exhibition space. Their dreamlike creations function as installations which overwhelm with stop motion animation, sculpture and music.

Light and darkness set the tone for the exhibition. We step into an enchanting flower garden where the intensity rises, and the atmosphere becomes darker and chaotic. Djurberg and Berg navigate the balance between the innocent and the grotesque, evoking emotional resonances akin to the fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen. The duo’s stop-motion films in modelling clay, a genre familiar from children’s movies, take on a bizarre, sexual and violent character in Djurberg and Berg’s work. Their films are reminiscent of a fever dream and a gateway to the human subconscious.

The Swedish artists Nathalie Djurberg (b. 1978) and Hans Berg (b. 1978) have collaborated since 2004. Djurberg is educated at Gothenburg’s Art School and Malmö Art Academy. Berg is a self-taught musician, producer and composer. They have received the Silver Lion for a promising young artist at the Venice Biennale (2009) and the Cairo Biennale Prize (2010); presented solo exhibitions in Europe, the USA, Asia and Australia, including at SONGEUN in Seoul, Tanya Bonakdar Gallery in New York, and ARoS Aarhus Art Museum; and are represented in the collections of, among others, the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, the Guggenheim Museum and The Museum of Modern Art in New York. Djurberg and Berg live and work in Sweden

Article photo: Still image from This is Heaven (2019). Courtesy the artists.