There’s no limit beyond the taboo!
There are two dimly lit rooms. Each contains two large flickering screens at opposing ends and tables with dozens of luminous glass sculptures scattered across them. The whole space is filled with dark atmospheric soundscapes. On the screens, colourful plasticine figurines move in stop-motion, appearing to play childishly in transparent glassy landscapes. Out of the surround sound system, a variety of fragile and dispersed offbeat noises and a deep organic bass swirl around the space. It might feel at first like you have stumbled into a fairytale, but once you recognise the ferocious character of these fictions, it’s going to make your flesh crawl.
Djurberg is a masterful sculptor, puppeteer, and filmmaker. Her compositions of colour, objects and motion are deeply sensual and pleasing. It’s the puppets’ unconscious beings that compel us to look at these acts of crudest violence. They recall both the grotesque of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and the archaic terror of Sodom and Gomorrah. But all morals are suspended in these provocative pieces and no comment whatsoever is provided within the narrative. The whole task of generating emotional intensity lies with Hans Berg and his congenial translation of the static, visual situations into dynamic aural fluctuations. Fragile sounds accompany the silent screams of the puppets and a masterly dramaturgy of sonic vibrations builds a tension of foreboding that inexorably intrudes your body.
Even if you do not care for content at all, but are rather looking for aesthetic stimulation and inspiration, you should not miss this. Merely as an example of high-level animation film and sound-installation, this masterpiece of collaboration between Nathalie Djurberg and Hans Berg is a deeply enjoyable experience.
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Natalie Djurberg & Hans Berg at Camden Arts Centre
7 October 2011 – 8 January 2012
Free admission
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