# Nathalie Djurberg

Nathalie Djurberg (born 1978 in Lysekil) is a Swedish video artist who lives and works in Berlin.

## Life and work

Djurberg is best known for producing claymation short films that are faux-naïve, but graphically violent and erotic. Their main characters, as described by The New York Times, "are girls or young women engaged in various kinds of vileness: from mild deception, friendly torture and oddly benign bestiality to murder and mayhem;" the characters are often subjected to “dismemberment, sexual humiliations and abuse, [and] attacks in a family setting or amid a strangely hostile nature. Her work concerns carnal and perverse relationships between people and animals, often involving sexual acts; her pieces have been likened to nightmarish fairy tales that do not resolve into happy endings. The films are accompanied by music by Hans Berg. Though Djurberg started out as a painter, she found herself unsatisfied with images that could only show a singular scene; this lead her to experiment with animation, which became her niche because it “foreground[ed] her interest in action and movement." She began making her own unique style of Claymation in 2001 and in 2004 she worked closely together with Berg to make narratives rich with symbolism that also often had humorous aspects to it.
Some of Djurberg's notable works are:Turn into Me (2008), I Found Myself Alone (2008) and Hungry, Hungry Hippoes (2007) The Parade (2011) The Secret Garden (2015)
Djurberg's works have been shown at Performa (2007), at Tate Britain (2007), at the P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center in New York (2006) and at the Berlin Biennial of Contemporary Art (2006). They were also featured at solo shows at the Kunsthalle Wien (2007) and at Färgfabriken in Stockholm (2006). In 2008, she exhibited both installations and films at the Fondazione Prada in Milan. Djurberg was awarded the Silver Lion for a Promising New Artist at the Venice Biennale in 2009. In 2011, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis organized and exhibited The Parade: Nathalie Djurberg with Music by Hans Berg, which traveled to the New Museum in New York (2012) and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco (2012–2013).
In 2012 at the new museum Djurberg’s installation included life-size sculptures of over eighty birds: pelicans, flamingos, turkeys, eagles, a dodo, and a snowy owl. These large pieces were made of wire, foam, silicone, painted fabric, and clay. The birds were depicted raising their wings, twisted their necks, and groomed each other. Many of them opened their mouths ferociously. In 2020, her "Crocodile, egg, man", created together with Berg, sold for 16,3 million SEK, a record sum for a contemporary Swedish work of art.

## Work Meaning

In a 2006 interview with Ali Subotnik, Djurberg expresses that she feels the clash between “the desire to do bad things and being terrified of being evil,” which she cites as part of her inspiration for her works. She also mentions that her violent works are a way of moving the brutality of the real world into her studio so she can control it; Djurberg can choose to “punish” the perpetrators in her stories, or not.

## Education

From 1994 to 1995, Djurberg received a Basic Art Education from the Folkuniversitetet in Göteborg. She attended the Hovedskous Art School in Göteborg from 1995 to 1997. During Djurberg’s schooling in Hovedskous she primarily focused on painting. Her painting skills are proven with the way her plasticine figures are modeled – her prowess gives her figures gestural expressionism. Djurberg received her Master's degree from Malmö Art Academy in 2002.

## Selected exhibitions

* 2005 Giò Marconi, Milan
* 2006 Zach Feuer Gallery in New York City
* 2006 Färgfabriken - Center for Contemporary Art and Architecture, Stockholm
* 2006 Maxxi Museum, Rome
* 2007 Kunsthalle Wien
* 2007 Kunsthalle Winterthur
* 2008 Fondazione Prada, Milan
* 2011 Walker Art Center, Minneapolis
* 2011 Camden Arts Centre, London, UK
* 2012 CCC Strozzina, Florence
* 2013 Garage Center for Contemporary Culture, Moscow, Russia
* 2014 Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA, USA
* 2015 Sammlung Goetz, Munich, Germany
* 2015 Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA), Melbourne, Australia
* 2015 ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum, Aarhus, Denmark
* 2016 Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts (PICA), Australia
* 2016 Wanås Konst, Knislinge, Sweden
* 2016 Minsheng Art Museum, Shanghai, China
* 2017 Museum Frieder Burda | Salon Berlin, Germany
* 2017 Stavanger Art Museum (MUST), Norway
* 2018 'Delights of an Undirected Mind' at the Baltimore Museum of Art, USA (2018)
* 2018 ‘A Journey Through Mud and Confusion with Small Glimpses of Air’ at Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden (2018); touring to Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Trento and Rovereto, Italy (2018) and Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, Germany (2019)
* 2021 'A Moon Wrapped in Brown Paper' at the Prada Rong Zhai, Shanghai, China
* 2023 'The Skin is a Thin Container' at the Musée d'Art Contemporain, Lyon, France

## Clay animation and digital videos

* Camels Drink Water (2007; 3:47 min.), Edition of 4, music by Hans Berg
* We are not two, we are one (2008; 5:33 min.), Edition of 4, music by Hans Berg
* Turn into me (2008; 7:10 min.), Edition of 4, music by Hans Berg

## Awards

* 2009 Silver Lion of Biennale di Venezia for Experimentet
* 2007 Carnegie Art Award 2007, Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Helsinki