11 APRIL – 19 OCTOBER 2025
DJURBERG & BERG.
THE CIRCLE OF LIFE
‘The banana has been used in art many times, but we do not cite any of
them directly . We just let the form be, as it is; open, silly, erect, peeled, vulnerable
and joyful.’ – Djurberg & Berg.
Mingling mischievous humour and subtle seriousness
the internationally acclaimed artist duo Djurberg
& Berg has taken over Ordrupgaard’s greenhouse
with an immersive installation that will be on show
throughout the summer. Nathalie Djurberg and
Hans Berg are known for their experimental and
often provocative works that combine installation,
sound and animation. The Circle of Life represents
a gigantic freestanding banana skin positioned in
exactly the same spot where the founding couple
had once placed a large banana palm. This is
a reinterpretation of the original function of the
space, which was that of a greenhouse, while at
the same time visualising the eternal cycle of existence
in a sculptural installation accompanied by
soundscapes.
Over the past 20 years the Swedish artist duo Nathalie Djurberg and Hans
Berg have achieved wide recognition exhibiting in museums around the world.
The human condition is a common thread running through their grotesque
and sometimes nightmarish installations, where surreal and bizarre elements
appear in science-fiction-like settings imbued with black irony.
THE CIRCLE OF LIFE
The installation The Circle of Life shows the skin of an opened banana rising
monumentally in space. Beneath the skin we can just make out the banana
itself, half-buried in the ground. Associations with conception, decay and rebirth
are obvious as a musical soundtrack emphasises the sculpture’s shifting
rhythms of upright lines and sweeping curves.
‘The banana is symbolically loaded and open to many interpretations; at
once sexually stimulating and mundanely banal. The banana skin, unfolded
like a flower and pointing upwards, is both ridiculous and strangely intimate,
like an erotic act unsure of whether it is sacred or absurd. We are deliberately
playing with this state of tension.’ – Djurberg & Berg.
DJURBERG & BERG
The artist duo lives and works in Sweden. Nathalie Djurberg was born in
Lysekil, Sweden, in 1978 and graduated from Malmö Art Academy in 2002.
Hans Berg was born in Rättvik, Sweden, in 1978. He is a musician, producer
and composer and works mainly with electronic music. In their installations,
the boundaries between the cinematic, the sculptural and the performative
are blurred in integrated environments of sculpture, moving images and
musical compositions.
THE GREENHOUSE EXHIBITIONS
Each year during the summer season, as part of this exhibition series,
Ordrupgaard invites a contemporary artist to create a site-specific, climate-
focused work for the greenhouse in the Art Park. The first exhibition in the
series took place in 2023 with the participation of Veronica Hodges, and in
2024 the exhibiting artist was Rune Bosse.
The exhibition series is made possible thanks to a thorough renovation of the
1921 greenhouse, which was funded by the Villum Foundation. The greenhouse
now occupies its original location in the orchard in the eastern part of
the park, close to Finn Juhl’s House.
The exhibition is supported by:
Dansk Tennis Fond
Ernst B. Sund Fonden
Inge og Asker Larsens Fond til støtte af almennyttige formål
The New Carlsberg Foundation
William Demant Fonden
15. Juni Fonden
Djurberg & Berg, The Circle of Life, Ordrupgaard, 2025, photo Anders Sune Berg
