A journey through mud and confusion with small glimpses of air.
Encountering the films of Nathalie Djurberg (b. 1978) and Hans Berg (b. 1978) has something of a seduction about it-impressive and immediate, they draw the viewer in, into colorful, suggestive worlds accompanied by hypnotic music. In playfully narrated, dark fables full of black humor, the great questions of humanity are negotiated. The Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt is presenting the work of the Swedish artist couple for the first time in Germany in a comprehensive survey exhibition. On view are around 40 video and sound works from the past two decades, including early videos such as My Name is Mud (2003) and Tiger Licking Girl's Butt (2004), large-scale spatial installations such as The Parade (2011) andThe Potato (2008), recent works such as One Need Not Be a House, The Brain Has Corridors(2018) and Dark Side of the Moon (2017), numerous sculptures and the artist couple's first virtual reality work It Will End in Stars (2018).
Already in 2003, Nathalie Djurberg became known for her stop-motion films - a slow, highly intricate animation technique that uses a series of still images to create the illusion of movement. The puppets, made of plasticine, clay, textile and synthetic hair, are the protagonists of a cinematic narrative that has been complemented since 2004 by the music of Hans Berg. Berg composes a specific sound for each film. The artist duo works intuitively in their own medium - without a prefabricated script, storyboard or fixed arc of tension. Through the interplay of sculpture, moving image, and sound, viewers are drawn in by a pull they can hardly escape. Djurberg and Berg let their figures go into action in secluded places, in the forest, in a cave, a chamber or on a stage, where they experience painful, but sometimes also comical situations, driven by an unconscious, inner desire. The artists take the visitors of the exhibition on a journey into the interior of the human being - with films that resemble absurd dreams as well as repressed memories and fathom the limits of the humanly bearable in an atmospherically condensed way.
Opening Hours:
Tuesday, Friday through Sunday: 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Wednesday and Thursday: 10 am to 10 pm
Text source and further information about this event: https://www.schirn.de/fileadmin/SCHIRN/Presse/Texte_deutsch_2019/Schirn_Presse_Djurberg_Berg_dt.pdf
