Park Han-sol reports on Korea's financial regulators, along with fintech and insurance. She previously wrote about the art world, from biennales and exhibitions to fairs and auctions, with a focus on Seoul and the figures shaping the scene. Before joining The Korea Times, she spent a year at ABC News' Seoul bureau, contributing to coverage of major Asia-Pacific events.
Swedish artist duo weaves grim tales with clay figures
A scene from Nathalie Djurberg and Hans Berg's stop-motion animation, "A Pancake Moon" (2022) / Courtesy of the artists, Lisson Gallery, Gió Marconi and Tanya Bonakdar
By Park Han-sol
In a gloomy forest, a dancing egg encounters a trio of roguish creatures who attempt to seduce it. To escape, it ascends to the sky and undergoes a transformation into a luminous moon, growing ever larger. Moments later, the sky can no longer bear its weight. The egg-moon plummets back down, now deflated into a flat pancake shunned by all.
“A Pancake Moon” (2022) by Nathalie Djurberg and Hans Berg weaves dark fables of lust, greed and temptation through an unlikely medium: analog stop-motion claymation. Imagine a Brothers Grimm fairy tale told in a macabre, Tim Burton-like style but brought to life with exaggerated lumps of moving clay.
Another punchy short film by the duo, “How to Slay a Demon” (2019), doggedly depicts a series of chaotic moments of assault from a first-person perspective. It shows how hauntingly memorable this marriage of fantastical stop-motion animation and savage narratives can be — whether it is to your taste or not.
Installation view of Nathalie Djurberg and Hans Berg's "How to Slay a Demon" (2019) for the duo's exhibition, "Beneath the Cultivated Grounds, Secrets Await," at SongEun in southern Seoul / Courtesy of SongEun Art and Cultural Foundation and the artists
The grotesque fever dream conjured by the Swedish duo — with Djurberg hand-producing the clay figures and sculptural installations and Berg creating the accompanying hypnotic soundscapes — is now explorable at SongEun in Seoul’s Gangnam District.
“Beneath the Cultivated Grounds, Secrets Await” marks the two artists’ first exhibition in Korea in 15 years.
Using the unique architecture of SongEun — from the spiral staircase to the subterranean cavernous chamber — the two have devised a sensory journey into the “depths of the human subconscious” through short films, sculptures and installations.
Installation view of Nathalie Djurberg and Hans Berg's "The Enchanted Garden" (2024) / Courtesy of SongEun Art and Cultural Foundation and the artists
The lighting plays a pivotal role in the viewers’ experience of the show across four floors.
The sunlight-bathed second-floor gallery features a set of newly commissioned sculptures, “The Enchanted Garden" (2024), where cobalt-blue branches play host to a surreal “natural” spectacle adorned with resin flowers, mushrooms and birds.
But a trip to the third floor envelops visitors in darkness, plunging them into the atmosphere emanating from Djurberg’s unsettling visual carnival and Berg’s evocative sounds. Here, the three bizarre stop-motion films — “Dark Side of the Moon” (2017), “A Pancake Moon” and “Howling at the Moon” (2022) — play in an ominous loop.
Installation view of Nathalie Djurberg and Hans Berg's "The Silent Observer" (2024) and "Possibilities Untouched by the Mind" (2024) / Courtesy of SongEun Art and Cultural Foundation and the artists
The highlight of the exhibition lies in the cave-like basement.
The mammoth moon, previously seen in claymation upstairs, now hangs suspended in mid-air as “The Silent Observer," held aloft by ropes.
Its sheer size, amplified by Berg’s eerie sounds reverberating throughout the chamber, is a strange eye-dazzler, making it impossible to look away.
A group of shimmering golden beavers — from “Possibilities Untouched by the Mind” (2024) — many of whose gazes are fixated on the moon, appears to share that sentiment.
“Beneath the Cultivated Grounds, Secrets Await” runs through July 13.
Nathalie Djurberg's shimmering golden beaver gazes upon the moon, the silent observer. Korea Times photo by Park Han-sol