Michael Elmgreen (born 1961;Copenhagen,Denmark) andIngar Dragset (born 1969;Trondheim, Norway) have worked together as an artist duo since 1995. Their work explores the relationship between art, architecture and design.
Elmgreen & Dragset live and work inBerlin. Their work is known for its subversive humor and wit, while simultaneously addressing social and cultural concerns.[1][2]
The duo met in Copenhagen in 1994, when Michael Elmgreen, who was born in the city in 1961, was writing and performing poetry, and Ingar Dragset, a Norwegian born in 1969, was studying theatre.[3] They started collaborating in 1995 and moved to Berlin in 1997. In 2006, they bought a large 1000m2 former water-pumping station dating to 1924 in Berlin's Neukölln borough from the city[3] and converted it into a studio.[4] In 2008, Elmgreen moved to London, and in 2015, he moved back to Berlin.[5]
Since 1997, the artists have presented a great number of architectural and sculptural installations in an ongoing series of works entitled 'Powerless Structures'[6] in which they transformed the conventions of the 'white cube' gallery space, creating galleries suspended from the ceiling, sunk into the ground or turned upside down.[7] For theIstanbul Biennial in 2001, they constructed a full-scale model of a typical ModernistKunsthalle descending into the ground while located outdoors among ancient ruins. Their work has also been shown in the Berlin, Istanbul, Liverpool, Moscow, São Paulo, Singapore, Gwangju Biennials.
Further exhibitions include transforming the Bohen Foundation inNew York into a 13th Street Subway Station in 2004; their best-known projectPrada Marfa, a Prada boutique inaugurated in 2005 and sited in the middle of the Texan desert; and their exhibitionThe Welfare Show in 2005–2006 atSerpentine Gallery,London /The Power Plant,Toronto / Bergen Kunsthall, Norway / BAWAG Foundation, Vienna, which was critically acclaimed.[2][8][9][10]
For the 53rdVenice Biennale in 2009 they curated the exhibitionThe Collectors in the neighbouring Danish and Nordic Pavilions (which include Norway, Sweden, and Denmark), an unprecedented merging of two international exhibition venues. For their show, they invited fellow artistsMaurizio Cattelan,Tom of Finland, Han & Him, Laura Horelli, William E. Jones,Terence Koh,Klara Lidén,Jonathan Monk, Nico Muhly, Norway Says, Vibeke Slyngstad, Thora Dolven Balke, Nina Saunders, andWolfgang Tillmans, among others.
In 2011, their sculpturePowerless Structures, Fig. 101 was chosen as the winner of the Fourth Plinth Commission to be displayed on theFourth plinth of London'sTrafalgar Square.[11] Theirbronze sculpture of a boy astride a rocking horse questions the tradition for war monuments to celebrate either victory or defeat.[12] The work is now permanently installed outside theArken Museum of Modern Art.[13]
In 2013, they curated an extensive public art program in Munich entitled “A Space Called Public/Hoffentlich Öffentlich”[14] and transformed the former textile galleries of theV & A Museum into the grand family home of fictional architect Norman Swann.[15] Their exhibition series “Biography” took place in 2014–2015 at theAstrup Fearnley Museet, Oslo and the SMK–National Gallery of Denmark, Copenhagen. In 2015 their exhibition “Aéroport Mille Plateaux” turned the PLATEAU Samsung Museum of Art in Seoul into an airport inspired by the ideas of philosopherGilles Deleuze.[16]
For their solo exhibition “The Well Fair” in 2016, the duo transformed theUllens Center for Contemporary Art inBeijing into a fictional art fair.[17] Also in 2016, the artists installedVan Gogh's Ear atRockefeller Center in New York; the 9-meter (30-foot) high, empty swimming pool stands upright on its shortest side.[18]
The artists’ first major overview in the UK, “This is How We Bite Our Tongue” was held at theWhitechapel Gallery, London, in 2018. The exhibition consisted of a large-scale site-specific installation and a survey of their sculptural works.The Whitechapel Pool, realised specifically for the show, transformed the ground floor of the gallery into an abandoned public swimming pool fictionally dated to 1901 and related to the gentrification of theEast End of London.[19]
In 2019, Elmgreen & Dragset held their first major solo exhibition in the United States:“Sculptures” at theNasher Sculpture Center in Dallas. Later that year, they installed a new public sculpture,“Bent Pool”, located in Miami Beach's Pride Park, which takes the shape of a large swimming pool arching backwards to form an inverted U shape.
In Finland, the artist duo transformed the premises ofEMMA – Espoo Museum of Art, into a surreal carpark environment for their exhibition“2020”, which coincided with the 25th year of Elmgreen & Dragset's collaboration. Later that year,“The Hive” was inaugurated at the new Moynihan Hall Train Hall inPenn Station, New York. Suspended from the ceiling,“The Hive” is an upside-down, fictional cityscape illuminated by lights that will hang permanently above the 31st Street Mid-block Entrance Hall inNew York City.
The following year,The Princess Estelle Cultural Foundation invited Elmgreen & Dragset to create a public sculpture for theRoyal Djurgården Parks in Stockholm.“Life Rings”, a towering sculpture made up of interlocking, stainless steel life rings, now stands at 7.5 meters (25 ft) high by the waterside of the public park. In 2021, the artists also received the 14th Robert Jacobsen Prize from the Würth Foundation, inKünzelsau, Germany. To celebrate the award a solo exhibition was held at the collection'sWürth Museum 2 in Künzelsau.
More recently, Elmgreen & Dragset's extensive exhibition“Useless Bodies?” was held atFondazione Prada inMilan through Spring and Summer of 2022. Spanning more than 3,000 square meters, the exhibition drew focus to the status of the human body in today's digitally saturated, post-industrial world, looking at our working conditions, living modes and the health and leisure industries. In winter 2022, the artist duo will open their forthcoming exhibition “After Dark” at By Art Matters Museum inHangzhou, China.
In 2003, Elmgreen & Dragset won the German Government's competition for amemorial inTiergarten park in Berlin, in memory of the gay victims of the Nazi regime, which was unveiled in May 2008.[20][21]
Several of their sculptures are now permanently installed for the public including their commission for theFourth plinth, now outside theArken Museum of Modern Art;Prada Marfa (2005), on theU.S. Highway 90 inTexas;Dilemma, a site-specific sculpture of a boy on a high diving board overlooking a fjord on the outskirts ofOslo andHan, a polished steel sculpture of a young man on a rock located in the centre of the harbor inHelsingør,Denmark.[22]Han was installed in 2012 and is based onEdvard Eriksen's famousThe Little Mermaid (statue). The figure sits in a similar pose, challenging conventional portrayals of masculinity.[23]
In 2012 Elmgreen & Dragset were also selected for London's Fourth Plinth Commission in Trafalgar Square, where they createdPowerless Structures, Fig. 101. Since then, Elmgreen & Dragset have realized:Van Gogh's EarArchived 2020-08-10 at theWayback Machine, first presented by Public Art Fund at theRockefeller Center in 2016 and since exhibited withK11 Musea in Hong Kong and Wuhan;Bent Pool (2019) in Pride Park, Miami Beach;The Hive (2020), welcoming visitors to Moynihan Train Hall in Penn Station, New York; and most recently,Life Rings atRoyal Djurgården, Stockholm (2021).
In 2007, Elmgreen & Dragset developedDrama Queens, a theatre play about 20th-century art history with six remote-controlled versions of iconic sculptures, forSkulptur Projekte Münster.[24] During the 2008 Frieze Art Fair, they stagedDrama Queens, this time enlivened by the voices of leading stage stars such asJeremy Irons andJoseph Fiennes, atThe Old Vic in London.[25]
2012 – Carl Nielsen og Anne Marie Carl-Nielsens Legat/Carl Nielsen and Anne Marie Carl-Nielsen Grant, awarded in conjunction with an exhibition at Den Frie in Copenhagen[30]
Biography (reader), Elmgreen & Dragset, Gunnar B. Kvaran and Kjersti Solbakken, eds. (Berlin: Archive Books, 2014).ISBN9783943620184
A Space Called Public, Elmgreen & Dragset, eds. (Köln: Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, 2013).ISBN9783863354398
Elmgreen & Dragset: Trilogy, Peter Weibel and Andreas F. Beitin, eds., exh. cat., ZKM Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe (London: Thames & Hudson, 2011).ISBN9783865609083
^Mendelsohn, Adam E. (10 August 2005)."Stealing the Show".Artforum. Artforum International Magazine. Archived fromthe original on 2016-06-03. Retrieved2009-02-08.
^Allen, Jennifer, "Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset, Klosterfelde (Linienstrasse)" inArtforum, October 2005, pp. 286-287.
