Djurberg works with animation films which are inhabited by clay figures in a strange universe. The short films are often no longer than five minutes but they manage however to tell stories about the human condition mixed both with black humour and seriousness.
The stories of Djurberg's stop-motions deal with topics such as war, violence, sexuality, sadism and assault in an investigation of the darker side of the human soul.
The stories often take place in a forest or urban settings such as small and somewhat claustrophobic rooms where grotesque episodes play out.
The stories all seem to have a strict narrative development where the initial scene is peaceful and playful but the story changes character completely into something profoundly unsettling. This sudden change leaves the viewer disturbed and as a passive witness to the grotesque.
I first saw her work in the 2009, in the basement of the Padiglione delle Esposizioni Venice Biennale.
Djurberg recreated a garden made of big creepy exotic plants and triffids, painted with fulsome colours.
The viewer, entering the darkness of this netherworld, is engulfed by sounds, composed by Hans Berg, which are at once cavernous and tropical, and then turn piercingly rhythmical. By taking refuge in the bark of a tree like an animal, he is exposed to the mercilessness of the three claymations (a method of animation in which clay figures are filmed using stop motion photography) projected on the screens. The first one, Cave, tells the story of two puppets who are fighting against their own limbs. Another one, called Forest, is showing a couple of puppets that resort to all sorts of brutalities in order to escape from the hostilities of the forest. Greed, the third, features sexual harassment, carried out by some puppets in the guise of Catholic clerics, towards puppets shaped as young naked women.
Djurberg's stories have a lot in common with traditional folktales. They deal with archetypical themes and involve traditional roles as the good, the bad and the kind helper. The films also have animals as characters e.g. the wolf, the bear and the tiger. As in tales strange and magical things happen in Djurberg's films; animals speak, trees walk and humans fly and talk with animals.
The visual shifts between the raw, grotesque and lyrical seem to be easier to get away with by using clay figures which the viewer associates with something childish and playful.
The unsettling sets in when we see what cute clay figures are capable of doing. Sardonic humour is used to draw a fine line between laughter and crying but the grotesque situations more often leave the figures in tears upon which the camera zooms. Sadness is used to show both a kind of remorse but also a feeling of frustration.
Djurberg's stories have a lot in common with traditional folktales. They deal with archetypical themes and involve traditional roles as the good, the bad and the kind helper. The films also have animals as characters e.g. the wolf, the bear and the tiger. As in tales strange and magical things happen in Djurberg's films; animals speak, trees walk and humans fly and talk with animals.
The visual shifts between the raw, grotesque and lyrical seem to be easier to get away with by using clay figures which the viewer associates with something childish and playful.
The unsettling sets in when we see what cute clay figures are capable of doing. Sardonic humour is used to draw a fine line between laughter and crying but the grotesque situations more often leave the figures in tears upon which the camera zooms. Sadness is used to show both a kind of remorse but also a feeling of frustration.
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