Elmgreen & Dragset

The artist duo Elmgreen & Dragset during the appointment of honorary doctorates at Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in 2015

Michael Elmgreen (born 1961; Copenhagen, Denmark) and Ingar 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 in Berlin. They are known for art work that has wit and subversive humour, and also addresses social and cultural concerns.^[1]^[2]

Life and work

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 the Istanbul Biennial in 2001, they constructed a full-scale model of a typical Modernist Kunsthalle 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 in New York into a 13th Street Subway Station in 2004; their best-known project Prada Marfa, a Prada boutique inaugurated in 2005 and sited in the middle of the Texan desert; and their exhibition The Welfare Show in 2005–2006 at Serpentine Gallery, London / The Power Plant, Toronto / Bergen Kunsthall, Norway / BAWAG Foundation, Vienna, which was critically acclaimed.^[2]^[8]^[9]^[10]

For the 53rd Venice Biennale in 2009 they curated the exhibition The 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 artists Maurizio 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, and Wolfgang Tillmans, among others.

In 2011, their sculpture Powerless Structures, Fig. 101 was chosen as the winner of the Fourth Plinth Commission to be displayed on the Fourth plinth of London's Trafalgar Square.^[11] Their bronze 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 the Arken 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 the V & A Museum into the grand family home of fictional architect Norman Swann.^[15] Their exhibition series “Biography” took place in 2014–2015 at the Astrup 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 philosopher Gilles Deleuze.^[16]

Van Gogh's Ear, 2016, in New York City's Rockefeller Center

For their solo exhibition “The Well Fair” in 2016, the duo transformed the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing into a fictional art fair.^[17] Also in 2016, the artists installed Van Gogh's Ear at Rockefeller 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 the Whitechapel 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 the East End of London.^[19]

In 2019, Elmgreen & Dragset held their first major solo exhibition in the United States: “Sculptures” at the Nasher 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 of EMMA – 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 in Penn 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 in New York City.

The following year, The Princess Estelle Cultural Foundation invited Elmgreen & Dragset to create a public sculpture for the Royal 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, in Künzelsau, Germany. To celebrate the award a solo exhibition was held at the collection's Würth Museum 2 in Künzelsau.

More recently, Elmgreen & Dragset's extensive exhibition “Useless Bodies?” was held at Fondazione Prada in Milan 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 in Hangzhou, China.

Permanent installations

Prada-1346603 1280

In 2003, Elmgreen & Dragset won the German Government's competition for a memorial in Tiergarten 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 the Fourth plinth, now outside the Arken Museum of Modern Art; Prada Marfa (2005), on the U.S. Highway 90 in Texas; Dilemma, a site-specific sculpture of a boy on a high diving board overlooking a fjord on the outskirts of Oslo and Han, a polished steel sculpture of a young man on a rock located in the centre of the harbor in Helsingør, Denmark.^[22] Han was installed in 2012 and is based on Edvard Eriksen's famous The 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 created Powerless Structures, Fig. 101. Since then, Elmgreen & Dragset have realized: Van Gogh's Ear, first presented by Public Art Fund at the Rockefeller Center in 2016 and since exhibited with K11 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 at Royal Djurgården, Stockholm (2021).

Performative works

In 2007, Elmgreen & Dragset developed Drama Queens, a theatre play about 20th-century art history with six remote-controlled versions of iconic sculptures, for Skulptur Projekte Münster.^[24] During the 2008 Frieze Art Fair, they staged Drama Queens, this time enlivened by the voices of leading stage stars such as Jeremy Irons and Joseph Fiennes, at The Old Vic in London.^[25]

Other activities

In 2019, Dragset was a member of the jury that chose Lawrence Abu Hamdan for the Edvard Munch Art Award.^[26]

Recognition

2000 – Hugo Boss Prize (nominated)
2002 – Preis der Nationalgalerie, awarded by Hamburger Bahnhof
2006 – Arken Art Prize^[27]
2009 – Special Mention at the Venice Biennale, for The Collectors
2009 – Kritikerlaget/Norwegian Critics’ Association Kunstkritikerprisen/Art Critics’ Prize, awarded for The Collectors^[28]
2012 – Eckersberg Medal^[29]
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]
2015 – Honorary doctorate, awarded by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)^[31]^[32]
2020 – The B.Z.-Kulturpreis, Berlin, Germany
2021 – Awarded the 14th Robert Jacobsen Prize of the Würth Foundation, Künzelslau, Germany
2022 – Soho House Established Artists Award, London, UK
2022 – Ny Carlsberg Fondet Prize, Ny Carlsberg Glypotek, Copenhagen, Denmark

Art market

Elmgreen & Dragset are represented by Pace Gallery (since 2020), Helga de Alvear, Kukje Gallery, Massimo De Carlo, Victoria Miro Gallery, Galleri Nicolai Wallner, Perrotin, and Taka Ishii Gallery.^[33] They previously worked with Johann König until 2022.^[34]

Solo exhibitions (selected)

2023

Bonne Chance, Centre Pompidou-Metz, France
READ, Kunsthalle Praha, Czechia

2022

Useless Bodies?, Fondazione Prada, Milan, Italy
Stand By Me, Massimo de Carlo Pièce Unique, Paris, France
After Dark, By Art Matters Museum, Hanghzhou, China

2021

The Nervous System, Pace, New York, USA
New Tenants, Perrotin, Paris, France
Elmgreen & Dragset, Würth Museum 2, Künzelsau, Germany
Life Rings, Princess Estelle Foundation, Royal Djurgårten, Stockholm, Sweden
Short Story, Copenhagen Contemporary, Copenhagen, Denmark

2020

2020, Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Espoo, Finland
Short Story, König Gallery, Berlin, Germany
Pool, No. 8, Gangnam, Seoul, Korea
Elmgreen & Dragset, Pace, East Hamptons, USA

2019

"Sculptures", Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, Texas, USA
"It's Not What You Think", Blueproject Foundation, Barcelona, Spain
"Adaptations", Kukje Gallery, Seoul, Korea
"Overheated", Massimo De Carlo, Hong Kong

2018

"This Is How We Bite Our Tongue", Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK
"To Whom It May Concern", FIAC Hors les Murs, Place Vendôme, Paris, France
"Elmgreen & Dragset", Galerie Perrotin, Paris, France
"We Are Not Ourselves" Archived 2019-01-07 at the Wayback Machine, Cristina Guerra Contemporary Art, Lisbon, Portugal

2017

"Die Zugezogenen", Museum Haus Lange, Kunstmuseen Krefeld
"Dilemma", Ekebergparken, Oslo, Norway

2016

"The Well Fair", Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China
"Van Gogh's Ear", Public Art Fund, Rockefeller Center, New York, US
"Powerless Structures", Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv, Israel
"Elmgreen & Dragset present Galerie Perrotin at the Grand Palais", Grand Palais, Paris, France
"Changing Subjects", The FLAG Art Foundation, New York, USA

2015

"Aéroport Mille Plateaux", PLATEAU, Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea
"Self-Portraits", Victoria Miro Gallery, London, U.K.
"Stigma" Archived 2016-03-19 at the Wayback Machine, Galleria Massimo De Carlo, London, U.K.
"Stigma" Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine, Galleria Massimo De Carlo, Milan, Italy
'"Lot", Galería Helga de Alvear, Madrid, Spain
"Past Tomorrow", Galerie Perrotin, New York, USA

2014

"Biography", National Gallery of Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark
“Biography”, Astrup Fearnley Museet, Oslo, Norway
"The Old World", Galerie Perrotin, Hong Kong

2013

"Tomorrow", Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK
"A Space Called Public", Munich (curated by Elmgreen & Dragset), Germany

2012

"Harvest", Victoria Miro Gallery, London, UK
"Han", permanent public artwork installed at Kulturværftet Helsingør, Denmark
"Powerless Structures, Fig. 101", The Fourth Plinth, Trafalgar Square, London, UK

2011

"Happy Days in the Art World" Archived 2011-10-24 at the Wayback Machine, Performa 11, New York, USA / Tramway, Glasgow, Scotland
"The One & The Many", Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum, Rotterdam
"Amigos", Galería Helga de Alvear, Madrid, Spain
"The Afterlife of the Mysterious Mr. B", Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Paris, France
"Elmgreen & Dragset", The Thorvaldsen Museum, Copenhagen, Denmark
"It's Never Too Late to Say Sorry", daily performance, Sculpture International Rotterdam, Rotterdam, Netherlands
"Silent wishes and broken dreams", Bayerische Staatsoper, Munich, Germany

2010

"Celebrity: The One & The Many", ZKM | Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe, Germany

2009

"The Collectors" – The Danish and Nordic Pavilions, 53rd Venice Biennale, Venezia, Italy
"Drama Queens", Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
"Trying to Remember What We Once Wanted to Forget", MUSAC, León, Spain

2008

"Too Late", Victoria Miro Gallery, London, UK
"Drama Queens", Old Vic Theatre, London, UK
"Home is the Place You Left", Trondheim Kunstmuseum, Trondheim, Norway
"Gedenkort für die im Nazionalsozialismus verfolgten Homosexuellen", Berlin, Germany
"Side Effects", Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Paris, France.^[35]

2007

"This is the first day of my life" Malmö Konsthall, Malmö, Sweden^[36]
"Ti sto pensando", Villa Manin, Centre for Contemporary Art, Passariano, Italy
"A Change Of Mind", Kunst am Bauzaun, Museion Bozen, Italy

2006

"The Welfare Show", Serpentine Gallery, London/The Power Plant, Toronto, Ontario, Canada^[8]
"Disgrace", Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Miami, USA
"The Incidental Self", Taka Ishii Gallery, Tokyo, Japan^[37]
"Would You Like Your Eggs A Little Different This Morning ?", Galleria Massimo De Carlo, Milan, Italy

2005

"Prada Marfa", Art Production Fund/Ballroom Marfa, Marfa, Texas^[38]^[39]
"The Brightness of Shady Lives", Galeria Helga de Alvear, Madrid, Spain
"The Welfare Show", Bergen Kunsthall, Bergen, Norway / BAWAG Foundation, Vienna, Austria
"Forgotten Baby", Wrong Gallery, New York, USA
"End Station", Bohen Foundation, New York, USA
"Linienstrasse 160, Neue Mitte", Klosterfelde, Berlin, Germany^[40]

2004

"Intervention 37", Sprengel Museum, Hannover, Germany
"Blocking The View", Tate Modern Gallery, London, UK^[41]^[42]
"Moving Energies" – Aspekte der Sammlung Olbricht : Michael Elmgreen & Ingar Dragset, Museum Folkwang Essen, Essen, Germany

2003

"Paris diaries", Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Paris, France^[43]
"Phone Home", Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York, USA
"Short Cut", Nicola Trussardi Foundation, Milan, Italy
"Spaced out", Portikus, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
"Please, Keep Quiet", Galleri Nicolai Wallner, Copenhagen, Denmark
"Constructed Catastrophes, Fig. 2", CCA, Kitakyushu, Japan
"Don't leave me this way", Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Paris, France

2002

"How are You Today", Galleria Massimo de Carlo, Milan, Italy
"Powerless Structures, Fig. 229", Galeria Helga de Alvear, Madrid Spain
"Museum", Sala Montcada/Fundacio La Caixa, Barcelona, Spain
"Suspended Space", Taka Ishii Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
CGAC, Santiago de Compostela, Spain

2001

"Taking Place", Kunsthalle Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
"Opening Soon", Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York, USA
"A Room Defined by its Accessibility", Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen, Denmark
Galleri Nicolai Wallner, Copenhagen, Denmark
"Linienstrasse 160", Klosterfelde, Berlin, Germany
"Powerless Structures, Fig. 111", Portikus, Frankfurt, Germany

2000

"Zwischen anderen Ereignissen", Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst Leipzig, Germany^[44]
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney, Australia

1999

Galleri Nicolai Wallner, Copenhagen, Denmark
"Powerless Structures, Fig. 57-60", The Project, New York, USA

1998

"Dug Down Gallery / Powerless Structures, Fig. 45", Galleri i8 & Reykjavik Art Museum, Reykjavik, Iceland

1997

"Powerless Structures", Galleri Campbells Occasionally, Copenhagen, Denmark
"Twelve Hours of White Paint/Powerless Structures, Fig. 15", Galleri Tommy Lund, Odense, Denmark

Group exhibitions (selected)