Moon Hunter

The artist Asger Jorn (1914-1973) was considered the enfant terrible of the Danish art scene during his lifetime. Today he is known as one of the world’s most influential figures of the European post-war avant-garde. As the co-founder of the artists’ group CoBrA and the International Situationists, his diverse range of artistic works represents both an experimental approach to new forms of collective artistic production and an alternative concept of art. In his early paintings Jorn worked to dissolve figuration without banishing the objective world completely from his images. He contrasted aesthetic beauty with the chaotic, excessive and ugly, and the serious with the silly and grotesque. Asger Jorn was celebrated as a pioneer for following generations of artists on account of his radical ideas and unusual portrayal of figurative creatures which oscillated between humans and animals.

The fascination and allure of his works for contemporary art today was the subject of the exhibition “Moon Hunter. Nathalie Djurberg & Hans Berg in Dialogue with Asger Jorn” at the Kunstmuseum Ravensburg. The museum owns several outstanding works by Jorn. In an experimental dialogue between Asger Jorn’s paintings and the cinematic-installative works by the contemporary Swedish duo Nathalie Djurberg & Hans Berg, the exhibition has expanded the reception of Jorn’s works with a yet untested form of exchange and wished to gain a deeper understanding of both positions.

Both Jorn and Djurberg & Berg are known for closely interweaving humorous and enigmatic elements in their artworks. Brightly coloured worlds sweep the viewer away to the playfully absurd and occasionally unfathomable zone between dreams and reality. Similar to the paintings by Jorn, the works by Djurberg & Berg flaunt normal conventions and question the validity of classical values and forms. In their stop-motion films, they engage in an experimental and collaborative form-finding process. In interchanging roles of animals, humans and mythical creatures, the bizarre clay figures by Nathalie Djurberg probe the extremes of interpersonal relationships, e.g. power and powerlessness, love and violence. Hans Berg’s musical compositions serve to condense the animation films and strengthen their drama and absurdity. Djurberg and Berg, both born in 1978, have had their works displayed in such renowned venues as the New Museum in New York, the Stockholm Moderna Museet, the Hamburg Deichtorhallen, and most recently at the Frankfurt Schirn and the Baltimore Museum of Modern Art. They were closely involved in selecting Asger Jorn’s works for the exhibition in Ravensburg.

Artistic director: Ute Stuffer
Artists: Nathalie Djurberg, Hans Berg, Asger Jorn