Drifter gives way to merriment

Art+ FÖLJDrifter gives way to munterhetFrans Josef Petersson see Nathalie Djurberg and Hans Berg at the Modern and expect a life-affirming utvecklingFoto: Åsa Lundén/Moderna MuseetEn journey through the swamp and confusion with the small glimpses of the air, shown at the museum of Modern art until september 9.ART

N athalie Djurberg and Hans Berg exhibition is the Modern museum is the most comprehensive presentation of the Swedish artistry so far in the 2000s, only in the competition with Marie-Louise Ekman's retrospective last year. The museum's two main halls are filled to the width of the Djurbergs sculptures and jerky lergubbe animations, where the Mountain is for the music. The result is like walking into a mind that is obsessed with sex, violence, death and decay. It will never end. You can spend a whole day in the exhibition, but to see it all.

That may sound funny, but I myself have often felt the right indifferent to Djurberg and Berg. Their way to stack the effects on each other makes the movies never becomes unpleasant or shocking really. In addition, they follow the same ”show what people are really thinking”-the logic of today's right-wing populists, which rarely provide any new insights. You will be most empty afterwards.

This said so is it really a consistent and thorough exhibition. It all starts with The Experiments, where the films are shown in a room full of dazzling djungelvegetation, and that became the duo's breakthrough at the venice biennale in 2009. The most interested I become of The Parade (2011), which consists of five films and a skulpturparad with cant birds.

It is a work that gives a fasansväckande picture of what people are capable of when you do them to pure instinct, without independent thought and emotional life. Associations to the nazi rallies and the cult of death is near. In addition to the major installations is shown a variety of new and old works in what feels like a maze, where one room leads into the next.

a questionable form, where the point is to limit our ability to look at art with a critical eye. We should not ask different works against each other, do not understand the konstnärskapets development over time. Instead, we indulge ourselves, experience the arts, not to think so much. Everything is here and now, all that appears different versions of the same.

Goes against this idea and constructs a comparative glance shows that Djurberg and Berg have moved from the similitude of the rebellious and wild in the man to increasingly take on the soulless and mechanical in driftslivet. We Are not Two, We Are the One (2008), about a figure who is half boy and half wolf, shows how conflicting impulses can share the same body. The conflict is not present in the newer works. Worship from 2016 is based on a more unilateral espousal of the craving, and they associated bananas and majskolvarna adorned with jewels completely lacks the monstrous dimension of The sculptures in The Experiments and The Parade.

interpretation to Djurberg and Berg in recent years have wanted to affirm the life and creativity principles in contrast to the destructive darkness that descends on us: misantropi, misogyni, racism. Basically, they have actually a cheery message: ”cheer you up” (”cheer up”), it says in a text on the wall in the first room. Moreover, here is a new film, Snake With a Mouth Sewn Shut, or This is a Celebration (2018), which celebrates the love between mother and child. This reflects an optimism that is echoed in the duo's way to work on a totally
according to their own principles.

Still manages to exhibit not quite convince me of its greatness. The new works are more technically sophisticated, but lack the rawness and willingness to revolt which in the past distinguished Djurberg and Berg. The focus on quantity is overwhelming, but also has an exhaustive effect. If instead, had dared to highlight the konfliktlinjer and differences in authorship, so I think that the result would have been more engaging.