Elmgreen & Dragset - Grand Format

The artist duo ELMGREEN & DRAGSET have played a significant role in redefining the way in which art is presented and experienced today. They have challenged the generic format of the white cube in various ways and they have transformed museum halls and gallery spaces into wholly different environments, such as a public swimming pool, a subway station, hospital wards, welfare offices, or domestic settings.
Their series of works named Powerless Structures - a term inspired by Foucault's theories on power - investigates how the dynamics of both institutional and urban structures might be less stable than we imagine and can therefore be subject to constant negotiation. Working in multiple disciplines such as sculpture, installation art and performance, Elmgreen & Dragset's ongoing spatial interventions decontextualize the familiar with a subversive absurdity.
Some examples include siting a forever-closed Prada boutique in the midst of the Texan desert, positioning a statue of a boy riding his rocking horse on the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square in London, installing an upright, 10-metre-tall sculpture shaped like an empty swimming pool and titling it Van Gogh's Ear at New York's Rockefeller Center, or covering the Place Vendôme in Paris with one hundred small red starfish cast in bronze.
Based in Berlin, Michael Elmgreen (b. 1961, Denmark) and Ingar Dragset (b. 1969, Norway) have worked together since the mid-1990s. They have held numerous institutional exhibitions at venues around the world such as the Whitechapel Gallery, London (2018) ; Museum Haus Lange, Kunstmuseen, Krefeld (2017) ; Tel Aviv Museum of Art (2016) ; the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing (2016) ; PLATEAU, Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul (2015) ; and the Victoria & Museum, London (2013-14).
They have been awarded the Preis der Nationalgalerie in Berlin (2002), received a Special Mention at the 53rd Venice Biennale for their Danish and Nordic Pavilions (2009) and were shortlisted for the Hugo Boss Prize (2000). In the Interview LINDA YABLONSKY discusses with the artists their early history, the essence of their collaborative practice and how this has developed over the years. In his Survey, MARTIN HERBERT looks at Elmgreen & Dragset's oeuvre, tracing a comprehensive picture of the trajectory of their work, from the late 1990s performative pieces in Copenhagen to the most recent public projects and their journey to international recognition.
In the Focus CONNIE BUTLER examines the socio-political themes that informed the duo's early Powerless Structures. For Studio Visit, JASON SCHMIDT offers a fascinating insight into the place where the artists' ideas come to life. Artists' Writings includes a special section designed by ELMGREEN & DRAGSET featuring extracts from the booklet accompanying their exhibition Tomorrow, a poem by Michael Elmgreen illustrated with images from the photo series The Incidental Self and a diary project made for the magazine Art Review.