‘Only for the Wicked’ Nathalie Djurberg & Hans Berg at Tanya Bonakdar

My first encounter with Nathalie Djurberg and Hans Berg’s work was at their survey exhibition at Moderna Museet in Stockholm in 2018. I haven’t seen an exhibition of theirs since so revisiting their work now feels both familiar and unsettling. The techno soundscape is immediately recognizable—hypnotic yet whimsical.

Djurberg and Berg’s Only for the Wicked (2021) unfolds like a fractured panoramic fairytale. Through seven claymation videos, the duo crafts a world where folklore, pop culture, and religious iconography collide. Catholic undertones of religious grandeur weave through the work. A pope-like figure takes center stage, guiding us through scenes of heightened absurdity, violence, and temptation. Snakes slither through the narrative, evoking the Year of the Snake or the biblical Garden of Eden. An apple—a forbidden fruit—appears. The archetypes are familiar: a judge, a king, a trickster jester—each stripped of moral authority, consumed by greed. Indulgence spirals into chaos; distorted and exaggerated, these well-known symbols expose the absurdity of our belief systems and the institutions that govern them.

Djurberg and Berg’s use of stop motion recalls the silent film, where physicality, expression, and sound carried the weight of storytelling. Borrowing from the crudeness of children’s stories, characters move with overdone expressions: sneers, grimaces, and whispers. Foxes hide in the shadows, and sex and violence intertwine. Across the seven video works, western classical fables—Hansel and Gretel, The Princess and the Pea, The Emperor’s New Clothes, and Little Red Riding Hood—resurface, but something more sinister is lurking beneath puffy skirts and capes. A main character is trapped in an endless loop of abundance and punishment, their fate culminating in a surreal semi-crescendo drenched in the sound of an organ. Here, gluttony reigns, bodies surrender to excess, and the spectacle is amusing and repulsive. In the “final” scene, the protagonist is beheaded, and a carrot is stuffed into his exposed behind. These gruesome figures push the grotesque to its limits, almost to breaking points.

The Swedish duo have worked together for two decades exploring tropes of authority, desire, and deception through pop references; the result is both subversive and revealing. Only for the Wicked emerges in a time when pop culture is increasingly self-referential—recycling its tropes while simultaneously evoking troubling histories, blurring the line between parody and provocation.

On the second floor, the exhibition continues across two rooms. The first features plant-like sculptures—clusters of flower buds from various species emerging from a single stem. Suspended directly from the walls, they appear to grow organically from the surface itself. The final room is dark, filled with tactile sculptures resembling living, growing stones, with bursts of flowers and other organic matter erupting from them. On the back wall, a projection plays three of the duo’s older video works, one after the other. The setup is reminiscent of a theater stage, inviting visitors to enter the scene while watching it animate.

Playing with stereotypes alone does not shift where complicity lingers, it can, however, reframe its presence. When humor becomes discomforting, one can ask—why do we find it amusing? Satire is effective when it punches up, challenging structures and exposing contradictions. In some of the duo’s previous work, certain elements have landed as punches down, reinforcing narratives and caricatures. The balance between message and content determines whether provocation leads to insight or merely perpetuates the familiar.

Only for the Wicked is on view until February 21, 2025, at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery.

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