Lisson Gallery is delighted to announce its first exhibition of work by Nathalie Djurberg & Hans Berg in Beijing, following their 2022 presentation, A Stream Stood Still, at Lisson Shanghai and A Moon Wrapped in Brown Paper at Shanghai’s Prada Rong Zhai in 2021. Known for their compelling fusion of visual art, music, and multi-dimensional storytelling, the Swedish artistic duo presents three signature psychologically-charged clay-animation films alongside sculptural works. The gallery is transformed into an immersive environment, engaging viewers on both a physical and psychological level, as the artists navigate the complexities of human emotion—addiction, desire, shame, greed, loss, and vulnerability.
Read moreCollaborating for over two decades, Djurberg and Berg have developed a deeply symbiotic creative process. Djurberg meticulously crafts and animates each figure and set in stop-motion, while Berg composes hypnotic soundscapes that heighten the psychological intensity and amplify the drama. This interplay of image and sound produces works that transcend traditional animation, acting instead as a visceral examination of the subconscious, tinged with absurdity and dark humour. Their characters—often anthropomorphic, surreal, and grotesque—function as metaphors for raw human impulses, existing in a world where logic yields to emotion.
The exhibition features three films that exemplify the duo’s signature aesthetic and thematic concerns. Dark Side of the Moon (2017) unfolds within a shadowy woodland, where a young girl is denied entry to a sentient cottage and tormented by surreal fairy-tale figures, including a smoking wolf, an overweight pig, and a dancing moon. The work traverses themes of fear, memory, and longing, framing sexuality and loss as intertwined experiences. A Pancake Moon (2022) follows an anthropomorphised egg on a hallucinatory journey through a forest inhabited by cunning animals seeking to seduce and consume it. As the egg transforms into the moon, it escapes danger, only to fall from the sky, losing its form and identity—a poetic meditation on transformation and selfhood. How to Slay a Demon (2019) confronts the theme of gluttony through the eyes of a supine woman, as a looming demon appears poised to consume her. The work offers a visceral reflection on addiction and desire, exposing the fragile boundary between pleasure and destruction.
Accompanying the films, a suite of sculptural works expands the exhibition’s immersive atmosphere. The Enchanted Garden series—comprising wall-mounted and freestanding sculptures—extends the presence of the forest beyond the screen. Crafted in deep electric blue, these organic forms, adorned with birds, recall Scandinavian folklore and reinforce the artists’ exploration of flora as a symbol of fleeting human emotions—joy, sorrow, desire, and vulnerability. Within this surreal landscape, golden beavers and mice gather amidst a tangled mass of branches. Known for building new pathways underground and altering the flow of water, these creatures metaphorically embody the unconscious thoughts that lie dormant before surfacing into awareness, as the title of the series Possibilities Untouched by the Mind (2024) suggests.
Nearby, Wolf and Moon (2023) depicts a humanised moon resting on the shoulder of a wolf, exploring the inextricable connection between instinct and reason. The tension between the primal and the rational underpins much of Djurberg & Berg’s practice, where familiar narratives of fables and fairy tales are reinterpreted through a psychological lens. The duo’s practice harnesses the dark potency of folklore, unearthing its contemporary relevance through visceral storytelling. Their works transcend conventional narrative structures, inviting audiences into an uncanny realm where the subconscious unfurls in all its raw and often unsettling beauty.
瑞典艺术家组合娜塔莉·杜尔伯格&汉斯·博格 (Nathalie Djurberg & Hans Berg) 在里森画廊北京空间呈现首次展览。杜尔伯格与博格的实践以交织融合视觉艺术、音乐与多维叙事而闻名，通过此次展出的三部极具情绪感染力的代表性黏土动画影像，以及一系列花卉雕塑作品，两位艺术家将画廊空间转化为一个沉浸式环境，引导观众从身心的层面深度探讨复杂的人类情感，例如痴迷、欲望、羞耻、贪婪、失落与脆弱等。此前，两位艺术家曾于2022年在里森上海推出个展「驻足」(A Stream Stood Still)，2021年在上海Prada荣宅举行展览「牛皮纸包裹的月亮」(A Moon Wrapped in Brown Paper)。
在逾二十余年的合作中，杜尔伯格与博格形成了一种默契无间的创作模式。杜尔伯格运用定格动画的手法，精心雕琢每个角色与场景；博格则谱写出迷幻的声景，以增强情绪张力与戏剧效果。在图像与声音的交融中，他们的作品超越了传统动画的范畴，并带有黑色幽默和一抹荒诞的色彩，深刻地检视人类的潜意识。在杜尔伯格与博格塑造的这个情感高于逻辑的世界中，他们创造的角色通常具有人性特征，超现实且怪诞，象征人类最原始的冲动。
此次展览呈现的三件影像充分体现了这对艺术家组合的标志性美学和长期关注的主题。《月之暗面》(Dark Side of the Moon, 2007) 在幽暗的森林中展开叙事：小女孩被一间会讲话的小屋拒之门外，并遭受了一群超现实童话角色的折磨，其中包括一只吞云吐雾的狼、一头体态拥臃肿的猪，和一轮跳着舞的月亮。作品穿梭在恐惧、记忆与渴望的命题间，塑造了性意识与迷失交织的体验。《松饼月亮》(A Pancake Moon, 2022) 是一部关于转变和自我认同的诗意冥思，讲述了一颗拟人化鸡蛋的迷幻旅程：它穿行于森林，林中有一群狡猾的动物试图引诱并吃掉它。于是这颗鸡蛋变成了月亮，就此逃离危险，可最终又从天空坠落，失去了自己的形状与身份。《屠魔之道》(How to Slay a Demon, 2019) 则通过仰卧的女性视角，探讨“暴食”的主题：一只逐步迫近的恶魔正准备侵犯和吞噬受害者。这件作品直观地反思着痴迷与欲望，揭示了欢愉与毁灭之间的脆弱边界。
除了调动视觉与听觉的影像作品外，同时展出的一系列雕塑将沉浸式的氛围蔓延至整个展厅。来自《幻梦花园》(The Enchanted Garden) 系列的花卉雕塑分布在展厅的墙面与地面上，将影像中森林的元素延伸至屏幕之外。作品以深邃的亮蓝为主色调，枝干上点缀着鸟类，灵感来自流传于斯堪的纳维亚的童话传说，反复出现于杜尔伯格与博格实践的植物意象喻指人类丰富的情感，例如欢乐、悲伤、欲望与脆弱等情绪。在这片花海中，来自《思绪未及之境》(Possibilities Untouched by the Mind, 2024) 系列的金色河狸和老鼠栖息于错综的枝桠间。这两种动物的习性是在地下开辟路径、改变水流的方向，它们象征着人类潜意识中沉睡的思绪。正如作品标题所指，在潜藏的想法进入意识之前，它们充满各种可能性，一旦浮现于意识之上，它们随时会改变我们的思路。
在一旁的雕塑《狼与月》(Wolf and Moon, 2023) 中，一轮拟人化的月亮被一匹狼扛在肩头，探讨本能与理性之间不可分割的联结。原始冲动与理性思辨之间的张力贯穿了杜尔伯格与博格的创作，他们藉此通过心理学视角重构为人熟知的寓言童话。这对艺术家组合充分发掘民间故事黑暗的一面，并以饱含感染力的叙事来揭示这些面向在当代语境中的相关性。他们的作品超脱传统的叙事结构，引领观众进入一个不可思议的世界，呈现出潜意识最为真实且扰人心魄之美。
