Somber walk-through installation with oversized flower sculptures and video projections
Sammlung Goetz x LOVECRAFT

Nathalie Djurberg & Hans Berg. The Experiment

The Sammlung Goetz has a new exhibition venue in the heart of Munich. In the former Kaufhof department store at Stachus, which currently houses the interim use project LOVECRAFT, the Sammlung Goetz will occupy an area of around 2000 square meters in the basement, thus serving as a temporary alternative venue for the exhibition building in Oberföhring, which is closed for renovation. The artist duo Nathalie Djurberg & Hans Berg will inaugurate this new space with the expansive multimedia installation The Experiment.

 

The work consists of a surreal-looking garden inhabited by more than a hundred larger-than-life sized plants, which Nathalie Djurberg has constructed using various plastics, cardboard and wire. Amidst this wondrous plant world, three stop-motion films—Greed, Forest, and Cave—are also on view. In these, the artist brings puppets, made of plasticine and cloth, to life in surreal, humorous, but also frightening tales. The films’ music was composed by Hans Berg, who uses sound to accompany the characters and drive the plot forward.

In Greed, three lascivious ecclesiastical dignitaries have their mischief way with a naked woman, who is at their mercy. Animal-like creatures—a recurring element in the films—give free rein to their animalistic urges. In Forest, the second installment of the trilogy, the creatures are plants. In this film, a young woman and her companion get lost in a dark and gloomy fairytale forest. The foe in this work is not always the ‘other,’ but is at times human beings themselves. In Cave, the third video film in The Experiment series, a woman is entangled in an absurd struggle with herself. The boundaries between victim and perpetrator seem to finally dissolve here.

The Experiment, a multimedia installation, was created in 2009 for the Venice Biennale. The work was awarded the Silver Lion for the best young artists, making the duo suddenly famous. The Sammlung Goetz has presented The Experiment in its exhibition building at Base103 in the past. With its presentation in the former Kaufhof building, the multimedia installation appears in an unusual location, one lacking a museum infrastructure. In keeping with the title of the work, it is an experiment that involves risks, but also opens up the opportunity to experience the multimedia installation in interaction with the special location, and thus to inspire a new audience for art.

LOVECRAFT intends to use the building for art exhibitions, sports activities, cultural events, retail and dining events, as well as for other uses, in keeping with its holistic usage concept. The building has a basement, a ground floor and seven additional floors.

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