Elmgreen and Dragset
Encyclopedia
Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset (born 1968; Trondheim
, Norway
) are artist-collaborators since 1995 and their work explores the relationship between art, architecture and design.
Dragset lives and works in Berlin; Elmgreen lives in London and works in Berlin. They are known for art work that has wit and subversive humour, and also addresses serious cultural concerns.
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 celing, 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. Further exhibitions include transforming the Bohen Foundation in New York
into a 13th Street Subway Station in 2004, siting a Prada boutique in the middle the Texan desert in 2005, and their The Welfare Show in 2006 at Serpentine Gallery
, London
, and the Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery
, Toronto
, which was critically acclaimed. Their best-known project is Prada Marfa
, inaugurated in 2005.
Elmgreen and Dragset won the German Government's competition in 2003 for a memorial
in Tiergarten park
in Berlin, in memory of the gay victims of the Nazi regime, which was unveiled in May 2008. For the 2008 Venice Biennale
they curated the exhibitions in the neighboring Danish and Nordic Pavilions (which includes 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, Nina Saunders, and Wolfgang Tillmans
.
In 2007, Elmgreen and Dragset developed Drama Queens, a theatre play about Twentieth Century art history with six remote-controlled fiberglass versions of iconic sculpture, 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 2011, their design Powerless Structures, Fig.101 won a famous annual competition 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.
in 2000, and in 2002 they won the Preis der Nationalgalerie at the Hamburger Bahnhof
, Berlin.
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001
2000
1999
1998
1997
, the Moderna Museet
in Stockholm, the Konsthall in Malmö, the Hamburger Bahnhof
in Berlin, and the Centro Galego de Arte Contemporánea in Santiago de Compostela.
Trondheim
Trondheim , historically, Nidaros and Trondhjem, is a city and municipality in Sør-Trøndelag county, Norway. With a population of 173,486, it is the third most populous municipality and city in the country, although the fourth largest metropolitan area. It is the administrative centre of...
, Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
) are artist-collaborators since 1995 and their work explores the relationship between art, architecture and design.
Dragset lives and works in Berlin; Elmgreen lives in London and works in Berlin. They are known for art work that has wit and subversive humour, and also addresses serious cultural concerns.
Life and work
Elmgreen and Dragset met in 1995 and moved to Berlin in 1997, where they converted a large 100m2 building into a home and studio.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 celing, sunk into the ground or turned upside down. For the Istanbul Biennial
Istanbul Biennial
The International Istanbul Biennial is a contemporary art exhibition, held every two years in Istanbul, Turkey, since 1987. The biennial is organised by the İstanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts. The Biennial aims to create a meeting point in İstanbul in the field of visual arts between artists...
in 2001, they constructed a full-scale model of a typical Modernist Kunsthalle
Kunsthalle
Kunsthalle is, generally, in German speaking regions a term for a facility mounting temporary art exhibitions. Some are run or supported by a local Kunstverein, an art association of local collectors and artists...
descending into the ground while located outdoor among ancient ruins. Further exhibitions include transforming the Bohen Foundation in New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
into a 13th Street Subway Station in 2004, siting a Prada boutique in the middle the Texan desert in 2005, and their The Welfare Show in 2006 at Serpentine Gallery
Serpentine Gallery
The Serpentine Gallery is an art gallery in Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park, central London. It focuses on modern and contemporary art. The exhibitions, architecture, education and public programmes attract approximately 750,000 visitors a year...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, and the Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery
The Power Plant
The Power Plant is one of Canada’s leading public galleries devoted to contemporary art, located in Toronto, Ontario at Harbourfront Centre. As a non-collecting art gallery, The Power Plant has presented new and recent work by numerous Canadian artists along with their international peers.Over its...
, Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, which was critically acclaimed. Their best-known project is Prada Marfa
Prada Marfa
Prada Marfa is a permanently installed sculpture by artists Elmgreen and Dragset, situated northwest of Valentine, Texas, just off U.S. Route 90, and about northwest of the city of Marfa. The installation was inaugurated on October 1, 2005...
, inaugurated in 2005.
Elmgreen and Dragset won the German Government's competition in 2003 for a memorial
Memorial to Homosexuals persecuted under Nazism
The Memorial to Homosexuals persecuted under Nazism in Berlin was opened on 27 May 2008.- Design of memorial :The Memorial was designed by artists Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset....
in Tiergarten park
Tiergarten
Tiergarten is a locality within the borough of Mitte, in central Berlin . Notable for the great and homonymous urban park, before German reunification, it was a part of West Berlin...
in Berlin, in memory of the gay victims of the Nazi regime, which was unveiled in May 2008. For the 2008 Venice Biennale
Venice Biennale
The Venice Biennale is a major contemporary art exhibition that takes place once every two years in Venice, Italy. The Venice Film Festival is part of it. So too is the Venice Biennale of Architecture, which is held in even years...
they curated the exhibitions in the neighboring Danish and Nordic Pavilions (which includes Norway, Sweden, and Denmark), an unprecedented merging of two international exhibition venues. For their show, they invited fellow artists Maurizio Cattelan
Maurizio Cattelan
Maurizio Cattelan is an Italian artist based in New York. He is known for his satirical sculptures, particularly La Nona Ora , depicting the Pope John Paul II struck down by a meteorite....
, Tom of Finland
Tom of Finland
Touko Laaksonen, best known by his pseudonym Tom of Finland was a Finnish artist notable for his stylized androerotic and fetish art and his influence on late twentieth century gay culture. He has been called the "most influential creator of gay pornographic images" by cultural historian Joseph W...
, Han & Him, Laura Horelli, William E. Jones, Terence Koh
Terence Koh
Terence Koh is a Canadian artist. Koh creates handmade books and zines, prints, photographs, sculptures, performances, and installations. Much of his diverse work involves queer, punk, and pornographic sensibilities. Koh has also worked under the alias "asianpunkboy", though it appears that name...
, Klara Lidén
Klara Lidén
Klara Lidén is a contemporary artist. She lives and works in Berlin. She is known for her installations and videos that respond to specific architectural environments....
, Jonathan Monk
Jonathan Monk
Jonathan Monk is an artist living and working in Berlin.-Art practice:Monk questions the meaning of art using conceptualism in a way that Ken Johnson in The New York Times called "sweet, wry and poetic"....
, Nico Muhly, Norway Says, Nina Saunders, and Wolfgang Tillmans
Wolfgang Tillmans
Wolfgang Tillmans is a German Fine-art photographer and artist. His comprehensive and diverse body of work is distinguished by observation of his surroundings and an ongoing investigation of the photographic medium’s foundations. In 2000, Tillmans was the first photographer and also the first...
.
In 2007, Elmgreen and Dragset developed Drama Queens, a theatre play about Twentieth Century art history with six remote-controlled fiberglass versions of iconic sculpture, for Skulptur Projekte Münster
Skulptur Projekte Münster
Skulptur Projekte Münster is an exhibition of sculptures in public places in the town of 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
Kevin Spacey
Kevin Spacey, CBE is an American actor, director, screenwriter, producer, and crooner. He grew up in California, and began his career as a stage actor during the 1980s, before being cast in supporting roles in film and television...
, at The Old Vic. In 2011, their design Powerless Structures, Fig.101 won a famous annual competition to be displayed on the fourth plinth of London's Trafalgar Square
Trafalgar Square
Trafalgar Square is a public space and tourist attraction in central London, England, United Kingdom. At its centre is Nelson's Column, which is guarded by four lion statues at its base. There are a number of statues and sculptures in the square, with one plinth displaying changing pieces of...
. Their bronze
Bronze
Bronze is a metal alloy consisting primarily of copper, usually with tin as the main additive. It is hard and brittle, and it was particularly significant in antiquity, so much so that the Bronze Age was named after the metal...
sculpture of a boy astride a rocking horse questions the tradition for war monuments to celebrate either victory or defeat.
Recognition
Elmgreen & Dragset were nominated for the Hugo Boss PrizeHugo Boss Prize
The Hugo Boss Prize is awarded every other year to an artist working in any medium, anywhere in the world. Since its establishment in 1996, it has distinguished itself from other art awards because it has no restrictions on nationality or age...
in 2000, and in 2002 they won the Preis der Nationalgalerie at the Hamburger Bahnhof
Hamburger Bahnhof
Hamburger Bahnhof is a former railway station in Berlin, Germany, on Invalidenstraße in the Moabit district opposite the Charité hospital. Today it serves as the Museum für Gegenwart , a contemporary art museum....
, Berlin.
Solo exhibitions
2011- „Happy Days in the Art World“, Performa 11, New York / The Tramway, Glasgow
- „The One and the Many“, Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum, Rotterdam
- „Amigos“, Galería Helga de Alvear, Madrid
- „The Afterlife of the Mysterious Mr. B“, Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Paris
- "Elmgreen & Dragset", The Thorvaldsen Museum, Copenhagen
- „It's Never Too Late to Say Sorry“, daily performance, Sculpture International Rotterdam, Rotterdam
- „Silent wishes and broken dreams“, Bayerische Staatsoper, Munich
2010
- "Celebrity. The One & The Many", ZKM | Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe
2009
- "The Collectors" – The Danish and Nordic Pavilions, 53rd Venice Biennale, Venezia
- "Drama Queens", Centre Pompidou, Paris
- "Trying to Remember What We Once Wanted to Forget", MUSAC, León
- "Supermodels", Taka Ishii Gallery, Tokyo
2008
- "Too Late", Victoria Miro Gallery, London
- "Drama Queens", Old Vic Theatre, London
- "Home is the Place You Left", Trondheim Kunstmuseum, Trondheim
- "Gedenkort für die im Nazionalsozialismus verfolgten Homosexuellen", Berlin
- "Side Effects", Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Paris, France.
2007
- "This is the first day of my life" Malmö Kunstahall
- "Ti sto pensando", Villa Manin, Centre for Contemporary Art, Passariano
- "A Change Of Mind", Kunst am Bauzaun, Museion Bozen
2006
- "Would You Like Your Eggs A Little Different This Morning ?", Galleria Massimo De Carlo, Milan
- "The Incidental Self", Taka Ishii Gallery, Tokyo
- "The Welfare Show", Serpentine GallerySerpentine GalleryThe Serpentine Gallery is an art gallery in Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park, central London. It focuses on modern and contemporary art. The exhibitions, architecture, education and public programmes attract approximately 750,000 visitors a year...
, London/The Power PlantThe Power PlantThe Power Plant is one of Canada’s leading public galleries devoted to contemporary art, located in Toronto, Ontario at Harbourfront Centre. As a non-collecting art gallery, The Power Plant has presented new and recent work by numerous Canadian artists along with their international peers.Over its...
, Toronto - "Disgrace", Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Miami
- "Prada MarfaPrada MarfaPrada Marfa is a permanently installed sculpture by artists Elmgreen and Dragset, situated northwest of Valentine, Texas, just off U.S. Route 90, and about northwest of the city of Marfa. The installation was inaugurated on October 1, 2005...
", Art Production Fund/Ballroom Marfa, Marfa, Texas - "The Brightness of Shady Lives", Galeria Helga de Alvear, Madrid
- "The Welfare Show", Bergen Kunsthall, Bergen, Norway
- BAWAG Foundation, Vienna, Austria
- The Power Plant, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- Wrong Gallery, New York, USA
- "End Station", Bohen Foundation, New York, USA
- "Linienstrasse 160, Neue Mitte", Klosterfelde, Berlin, Germany
2004
- "Intervention 37", Sprengel MuseumSprengel MuseumThe Sprengel Museum in Hanover houses one of the most significant collections of modern art in Germany. It is located in a building designed by Peter and Ursula Trint and Dieter Quast , adjacent to the Maschsee...
, Hannover, Germany - "Blocking The View", Tate Modern GalleryTate ModernTate Modern is a modern art gallery located in London, England. It is Britain's national gallery of international modern art and forms part of the Tate group . It is the most-visited modern art gallery in the world, with around 4.7 million visitors per year...
, London, Great Britain - "Moving Energies" - Aspekte der Sammlung Olbricht : Michael Elmgreen & Ingar Dragset, Museum FolkwangMuseum FolkwangMuseum Folkwang is a major collection of 19th and 20th century art in Essen, Germany. The museum was established in 1922 by merging the Essener Kunstmuseum, which was founded in 1906, and the private Folkwang Museum of the collector and patron Karl Ernst Osthaus in Hagen, founded in 1901.The term...
Essen, Essen, Germany
2003
- "Paris diaries", Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Paris, France
- "Phone Home", Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York, USA
- "Short Cut", Nicola Trussardi FoundationNicola Trussardi FoundationThe Nicola Trussardi Foundation is a non-profit institution for the promotion of contemporary art and culture. Created in 1996, the Nicola Trussardi Foundation is neither a museum nor a collection...
, Milan, Italy - "Spaced out", Portikus, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
- "Please, Keep Quiet", Galleri Nicolai Wallner, Copenhagen, Denmark
- 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 KunstStatens Museum for KunstStatens Museum for Kunst is the Danish national gallery located in Copenhagen....
, 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
- 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, Icelande
1997
- "Powerless Structures", Gallery Campbelles Occasionally, Copenhagen, Denmark
- "12 Hours of White Paint", Galleri Tommy Lund, Odense, Denmark
Collections
Elmgreen and Dragset's work is in the permanent collection of several museums in Europe, such as the Louisiana Museum of Modern ArtLouisiana Museum of Modern Art
The Louisiana Museum of Modern Art is an art museum located directly on the shore of the Øresund Sound in Humlebæk, north of Copenhagen, Denmark. It is the most visited art museum in Denmark with an extensive permanent collection of modern and contemporary art, dating from World War II and up...
, the Moderna Museet
Moderna Museet
Moderna museet, the Museum of Modern Art, Stockholm, Sweden, is a state museum located on the island of Skeppsholmen in central Stockholm, that was first opened in 1958. Its first manager was Pontus Hultén...
in Stockholm, the Konsthall in Malmö, the Hamburger Bahnhof
Hamburger Bahnhof
Hamburger Bahnhof is a former railway station in Berlin, Germany, on Invalidenstraße in the Moabit district opposite the Charité hospital. Today it serves as the Museum für Gegenwart , a contemporary art museum....
in Berlin, and the Centro Galego de Arte Contemporánea in Santiago de Compostela.
External links
- Elmgreen & Dragset's contribution for the Fourth Plinth 2012
- Elmgreen & Dragset: The Collectors, The Danish & Nordic Pavillion, 53rd Venice Biennial in 2009 (Podcast)
- Elmgreen & Dragset on Artcyclopedia
- Elmgreen & Dragset: Memorial at the Tiergarten in Berlin
- "Drama Queens"- Trailer
- Elmgreen & Dragset Galleries