Animation exhibition and cabinet of curiosities go on show at Garage

A series of surreal animations and video installations will go on show at Moscow’s Garage Centre for Contemporary Culture today as part of separate exhibitions featuring the work of two highly acclaimed European artists. The first, The Black Pot, is a multimedia installation by Swedish video artists Nathalie Djurberg and Hans Berg. Djurberg is best known for her claymation stop-motion films, which explore fear, violence, sexual obsession and cruelty.

Making use of playful, childhood-inspired aesthetics, her short films, set to music scored by Berg, use moving image to probe deep into the human subconscious and its most forbidden desires. For the exhibition, created exclusively for Garage, Djurberg looks at the evolution of an organism from an egg to mature form with sculptures that range from donuts to scrambled eggs.

The second exhibition, Kunstkammer, will feature work from internationally renowned Czech-born artist, filmmaker and set designer Jan Švankmajer whose surreal animations make use of a variety of video techniques including live action, stop motion animation and puppetry.

The exhibition is inspired by the concept of kunstkammer (cabinet of curiosities), which were first created during the 16th century at a time of geographic discovery. The exhibition will be delivered as a large architectural installation designed especially for Garage with the aim of fully immersing visitors in Švankmajer’s universe.

Both shows have been curated by Yulia Aksenova, who has worked at a variety of the capital’s museums including the State Tretyakov Gallery and the Moscow Centre of Art among others. The exhibition will run until 25 August.