Elmgreen & Dragset
Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset 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.
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 theater. 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 and converted it into a studio. In 2008, Elmgreen moved to London, and in 2015, he moved back to Berlin.Since 1997, the artists have presented a great number of architectural and sculptural installations in an ongoing series of works entitled 'Powerless Structures' 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. For the Istanbul Biennial in 2001, they constructed a full-scale model of a typical Modernist Kunsthalle descending into the ground while located outdoor 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.
For the 53rd Venice Biennale in 2009 they curated the exhibition The Collectors in the neighboring Danish and Nordic Pavilions, 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. Their bronze sculpture of a boy astride a rocking horse questions the tradition for war monuments to celebrate either victory or defeat. The work is now permanently installed outside the Arken Museum of Modern Art.
In 2013 they curated an extensive public art program in Munich entitled “A Space Called Public/Hoffentlich Öffentlich” and transformed the former textile galleries of the Victoria and Albert Museum into the grand family home of fictional architect Norman Swann. Their exhibition series “Biography” took place in 2014–2105 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.
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. Also in 2016, the artists installed Van Gogh’s Ear at Rockefeller Center in New York; the 9-meter high, empty swimming pool stands upright on its shortest side, supported by a visible construction on its backside.
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.
Permanent installations
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.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, 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. Han was installed in 2012 and is based on Edvard Eriksen’s famous The Little Mermaid. The figure sits in a similar pose, challenging conventional portrayals of masculinity.
Performative works
In 2007, Elmgreen & Dragset developed Drama Queens, a theatre play about Twentieth Century art history with six remote-controlled versions of iconic sculptures, for Skulptur Projekte Münster. During the 2008 Frieze Art Fair, they staged Drama Queens, this time enlivened by the voices of leading stage stars such as Kevin Spacey, at The Old Vic in London.Recognition
Elmgreen & Dragset were nominated for the Hugo Boss Prize in 2000, and in 2002 they won the Preis der Nationalgalerie at the Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin. The artists were awarded the Arken Art Prize in 2006. In 2009, Elmgreen & Dragset were awarded Special Mention at the Venice Biennale for The Collectors, their highly elaborate exhibition for the Danish and Nordic Pavilions. For the same exhibition, also in 2009, they were awarded the Kritikerlaget/Norwegian Critics’ Association Kunstkritikerprisen/Art Critics’ Prize.In 2012 they won an Eckersberg Medal and were also awarded the Carl Nielsen og Anne Marie Carl-Nielsens Legat/Carl Nielsen and Anne Marie Carl-Nielsen Grant in conjunction with their exhibition at Den Frie in Copenhagen.
In 2015 they were awarded an honorary doctorate at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology :
Solo Exhibitions (selected)
2019- , Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, Texas, USA
- , Blueproject Foundation, Barcelona, Spain
- , Kukje Gallery, Seoul, Korea
- , Massimo De Carlo, Hong Kong
- , Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK
- , FIAC Hors les Murs, Place Vendôme, Paris, France
- , Galerie Perrotin, Paris, France
- , Cristina Guerra Contemporary Art, Lisbon, Portugal
- , Museum Haus Lange, Kunstmuseen Krefeld, Krefeld, Germany
- , Ekebergparken, Oslo, Norway
- , Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China
- , Public Art Fund, Rockefeller Center, New York, USA
- , Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv, Israel
- , Grand Palais, Paris, France
- , The FLAG Art Foundation, New York, USA
- , PLATEAU, Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea
- , Victoria Miro Gallery, London, U.K.
- , Galleria Massimo De Carlo, London, U.K.
- , Galleria Massimo De Carlo, Milan, Italy
- , Galería Helga de Alvear, Madrid, Spain
- , Galerie Perrotin, New York, USA
- , National Gallery of Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark
- , Astrup Fearnley Museet, Oslo, Norway
- , Galerie Perrotin, Hong Kong
- , Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK
- , Munich, Germany
- , 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
- , Performa 11, New York, USA / Tramway, Glasgow, Scotland
- , 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
- , ZKM | Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe, Germany
- "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
- "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.
- "This is the first day of my life" Malmö Konsthall, Malmö, Sweden
- "Ti sto pensando", Villa Manin, Centre for Contemporary Art, Passariano, Italy
- "A Change Of Mind", Kunst am Bauzaun, Museion Bozen, Italy
- "The Welfare Show", Serpentine Gallery, London/The Power Plant, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- "Disgrace", Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Miami, USA
- "The Incidental Self", Taka Ishii Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
- "Would You Like Your Eggs A Little Different This Morning ?", Galleria Massimo De Carlo, Milan, Italy
- "Prada Marfa", Art Production Fund/Ballroom Marfa, Marfa, Texas
- "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
- "Intervention 37", Sprengel Museum, Hannover, Germany
- "Blocking The View", Tate Modern Gallery, London, UK
- "Moving Energies" - Aspekte der Sammlung Olbricht : Michael Elmgreen & Ingar Dragset, Museum Folkwang Essen, Essen, Germany
- "Paris diaries", Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Paris, France
- "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
- "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
- "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
- "Zwischen anderen Ereignissen", Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst Leipzig, Germany
- Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney, Australia
- Galleri Nicolai Wallner, Copenhagen, Denmark
- "Powerless Structures, Fig. 57-60", The Project, New York, USA
- "Dug Down Gallery / Powerless Structures, Fig. 45", Galleri i8 & Reykjavik Art Museum, Reykjavik, Iceland
- "Powerless Structures", Galleri Campbells Occasionally, Copenhagen, Denmark
- "Twelve Hours of White Paint/Powerless Structures, Fig. 15", Galleri Tommy Lund, Odense, Denmark
Group Exhibitions (selected)
- , Statens Museum fur Kunst, Copenhagen, Denmark
- , Wisconsin, USA
- , Clark Art Institute, Massachusetts, USA
- , ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum, Aarhus, Denmark
- , Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen, Denmark
- , Bad Homburg, Germany
- , Kunstverein in Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
- , Galerie Rudolfinium, Prague, Czech Republic
- , steirischerherbst'19, Graz, Austria
- , Villa Carmignac, Porquerolles, France
- , Villa Arson, Nice, France
- , Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Sint-Martens-Latem, Belgium
- , The Met Breuer, New York, USA
- , Bangkok Art Biennial, Bangkok, Thailand
- , Aspen Museum of Art, Aspen, USA
- , MMK Frankfurt am Main, Germany
- , National Gallery of Singapore, Singapore
- , ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum, Aarhus, Denmark
- , Museu Coleção Berardo, Lisbon, Portugal
- , Kunsthaus Centre d’Art Pasquart, Biel/Bienne, Switzerland
- , La Panacée MoCo, Montpellier, France
- , Berlin, Germany
- , Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany
- , Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel
- , ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum, Aarhus, Denmark
- , Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK
- , Bröhan Museum, Berlin, Germany
- , Praz Delavallade, Los Angeles, California, USA
- "Die Schönheit im Anderen/The Beauty of Difference", Schloss Lieberose, Lieberose, Germany
- , Schloss Tüßling, Tüßling, Germany
- , ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum, Aarhus, Denmark
- , Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw, Poland
- , Galerie Micky Schubert, Berlin, Germany
- , König Galerie, Berlin, Germany
- , Marian Goodman Gallery, London, UK
- , Victoria Miro Gallery, London, UK
- , Taka Ishii Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
- , ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum, Aarhus, Denmark
- , Kunsthalle München, Munich, Germany
- "ta.bu", Maison Particulière Art Center, Brussels, Belgium
- "What We Call Love, From Surrealism to Now", performance piece, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin.
- “Man in the Mirror”, Vanhaerents Art Collection, Brussels, Belgium
- “Poor Art–Rich Legacy. Arte Povera and parallel practices 1968–2015”, Museum of Contemporary Art, Oslo, Norway
- “Slip of the Tongue”, Punta Della Dogana, Venice, Italy
- “Panorama”, High Line Art, New York, USA
- “Infinite Experience”, Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina
- “Days push off into nights”, Spring Workshop, Hong Kong
- “All the World’s a Stage. Works from the Goetz Collection”, Fundación Banco Santander, Madrid, Spain
- “No Hablaremos de Picasso”, Palacio Municipal Kiosko Alfonso, A Coruña, Spain
- “more Konzeption Conception now”, Museum Morsbroich, Germany
- “Power Memory People – Memorials of Today”, KØS Museum of Art in Public Spaces, Køge, Denmark
- “GOLD”, Bass Museum of Art, Miami, USA
- “do it Moscow”, Independent Curators International, Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow, Russia
- “Man in the Mirror”, Vanhaerents Art Collection, Brussels, Belgium
- “Attention Economy”, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, Austria
- “Do Not Disturb”, Gerhardsen Gerner Gallery, Oslo, Norway
- “LOVE AIDS RIOT SEX II, Art Aids Activism from 1995 until today”, NBGK | Neue Gesellschaft für bildende Kunst, Berlin, Germany
- , 13th Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul, Turkey
- “auf Zeit”, Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, Baden Baden, Germany
- , Leopold Museum, Vienna, Austria
- , Public Art Fund, New York, USA
- Liverpool Biennial, Liverpool, UK
- “TRACK – A contemporary city conversation”, S.M.A.K., the Museum of Contemporary Art, Ghent, Belgium
- "Untitled", Istanbul, Turkey
- "You Are Not Alone", Joan Miró Foundation, Barcelona, Spain
- "Fourth Plinth Commission, Six new proposals", The Foyer, St. Martin-in-the-Fields, London, UK
Collections
- Mumok, "Museum of modern art, Ludwig Foundation, Vienna, Austria
- TBA21 Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, Vienna, Austria
- National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Canada
- Kunsthalle Praha, Prague, Czech Republic
- K11 Art Foundation, Hong Kong SAR, China
- Arken Museum of Modern Art, Ishøj, Denmark
- ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum, Aarhus, Denmark
- KØS Museum of art in public spaces, Køge, Denmark
- KUNSTEN Museum of Modern Art Aalborg, Aalborg, Denmark
- Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek, Denmark
- National Gallery of Denmark, Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen, Denmark
- EMMA – Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Espoo, Finland
- Fonds national d'art contemporain, Paris, France
- Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin, Germany
- Kunstmuseen Krefeld, Krefeld, Germany
- me Collectors Room Berlin, Berlin, Germany
- Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
- Pinakothek der Moderne, München, Germany
- Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Dresden, Germany
- Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
- Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv, Israel
- Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel
- Museion, Bolzano, Italy
- Fukutake Art Museum Foundation, Naoshima, Japan
- Aïshti Foundation, Beirut, Lebanon
- Colección Jumex, Fundación Jumex Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City, Mexico
- Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo, Norway
- Bergen Kunsthall, Bergen, Norway
- Ekebergparken Sculpture Park, Oslo, Norway
- Kistefos-Museet, Jevnaker, Norway
- National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Nasjonalmuseet, Oslo, Norway
- Trondheim Art Museum, Trondheim, Norway
- Anyang Foundation for Culture & Arts, Anyang, South Korea
- Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea
- MUSAC Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León, León, Spain
- Malmö Art Museum, Malmö, Sweden
- Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden
- Migros Museum of Contemporary Art, Zurich, Switzerland
- Kunsthalle Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland
- Zabludowicz Collection, London, UK
- Art Production Fund / Ballroom Marfa, Marfa, Texas, USA
- Chazen Museum of Art, Madison, Wisconsin, USA
- Denver Art Museum, Denver, Colorado, USA
- Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA
- Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, Nevada, USA
Commissions
- Powerless Structures, Fig. 101, Mayor of London's Fourth Plinth Commission, Trafalgar Square, London, UK, 2012
- Han commissioned by city of Helsingør, the sculpture installed in the center of the harbor basin as a protagonist in Kulturhavn Kronborg, 2012
- Louis Vuitton New Bond Street Maison and Louis Vuitton Librairie, London, 2012
- To Whom It May Concern, FIAC HORS LES MURS, Place Vendôme, Paris, 2018
- Van Gogh’s Ear, Rockefeller Center, New York, 2016
Catalogues
- Elmgreen & Dragset: Sculptures.
- Elmgreen & Dragset.
- This Is How We Bite Our Tongue.
- 15th Istanbul Biennial: a good neighbour: Exhibition and Stories.
- Die Zugezogenen.
- The Others.
- The Well Fair, Elmgreen & Dragset.
- Aéroport Mille Plateaux, Elmgreen & Dragset.
- Biography, Elmgreen & Dragset.
- Biography, Elmgreen & Dragset, Gunnar B. Kvaran and Kjersti Solbakken, eds..
- A Space Called Public, Elmgreen & Dragset, eds..
- Elmgreen & Dragset: Trilogy, Peter Weibel and Andreas F. Beitin, eds., exh. cat., ZKM Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe.
- Elmgreen & Dragset: Performances: 1995-2011, Anita Iannacchione, ed..
- Elmgreen & Dragset: This is the First Day of My Life, Anna Stüler, ed..
- Home is the Place You Left, Elmgreen & Dragset, Trondheim Kunstmuseum.
- Prada Marfa, Elmgreen & Dragset. - no longer in print.
- The Welfare Show, Elmgreen & Dragset. - no longer in print.
- Taking Place, Beatrix Ruf, ed., exh. cat. Kunsthalle Zürich. - no longer in print.
- Zwischen anderen Ereignissen, exh. cat.. - no longer in print.
- Powerless Structures exh. cat.. - no longer in print.
Images