Discover art in Ordrupgaard's historic Greenhouse. In their work The Circle of Life, the Swedish artist duo Nathalie Djurberg (1978) and Hans Berg (1978) explore the greenhouse's original function as a palm house with exotic plants.
At the center of the greenhouse, a banana palm originally grew, which Djurberg and Berg have thematized in their work. In The Circle of Life, the artist duo has transformed the familiar shape of a banana peel into a monumental sculpture, standing freely as if frozen in the middle of its movement toward the ground. A clear symbol, yet one that holds many possible layers of interpretation and references.
Beneath the sculpture, a half-buried banana rises toward the open peel, hinting at an impending union. It’s a surreal encounter between the two forms, playing on the cyclical nature of conception, decay, and rebirth. As part of the work, Berg has created a musical composition that emphasizes the dance between peel and banana, the feminine and masculine, in a comic freeze-frame. With their characteristic mix of humor and depth, Djurberg and Berg transform the everyday into a provocative exploration of the human experience.
Nathalie Djurberg is a visual artist, educated at Malmö Art Academy in 2002, and Hans Berg is a musician, producer, and composer, working primarily with electronic music.
Source: Ordrupgaard
