“Fantasy” by Beatrice Brandini

Nathalie Djurberg & Hans Berg, Flower Fly, 2012

From mid-November to 9 January 2022, at Prada Rong Zhai in Shanghai, Fondazione Prada presents A moon Wrapped in Brown Paper, an exhibition by Nathalie Djurberg and Hans Berg.

Nathalie Djurberg & Hans Berg: “The Experiment”

Nathalie and Hans are an artistic duo that works through videos, animations, installations, sculptures, narrating a world suspended between the grotesque and the dramatic: Djurberg uses clay and makes it animated, Berg creates the perfect soundtrack for these imaginative film sets, which will become videos and installations.

Nathalie Djurberg & Hans Berg: “Worship”, 2016

Once again, as happened at the Mart in Rovereto, the exhibition is nourished by fantastic landscapes populated by people, animals and plants that interpret the impulses and contradictions of the human soul.

Nathalie Djurberg & Hans Berg: “Untitled”, 2010

There is irony, but also restlessness, in the allegories that the two artists stage. In what sometimes looks like an enchanted forest, the main characters are a metaphor for sexuality, fear, jealousy, greed …

Nathalie Djurberg & Hans Berg: “The brain has Corridors -Dealer” , 2018

They could be the miniatures of a crime scene, a tower of Babel in which animalistic desires and instincts prevail over everything, which is why at times you are attracted and fascinated by these immersive installations, at other times you are almost bothered by them, horrified by so much cruel hallucination.

These good artists, formerly the Leone d’Argento at the Venice Biennale in 2009, underline the contradictions of the human soul with apparent lightness. Plasticine and the stop-motion technique (sequential frames that create the illusion of movement), lighten this narrative, which is sometimes hallucinogenic and always deeply cynical.

    

Nathalie Djurberg e Hans Berg’s mood by Beatrice Brandini

    

Nathalie Djurberg e Hans Berg’s mood by Beatrice Brandini

Nathalie Djurberg and Hans Berg

The worlds of Nathalie and Hans are those of the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm, after all, even the forest of Hansel and Gretel was dark and scary, yet it is one of the most famous fairy tales for children.

Good life to everyone!

Beatrice