Elmgreen & Dragset give an artist talk at the Art Institute of Chicago

The duo discuss their work in a free talk on 5 February 2019.

Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset have worked together since 1995 at the crossroads of art and architecture and performance and installation. Preoccupied with objects and their settings and the discourse that can arise when those objects are radically recontextualized, Elmgreen & Dragset push against the normal modes for the display of art. Whether presenting sculptures or total environments, their work draws attention to the institutions that host them and their attendant politics. Performativity and participation are fraught as their work invites and denies participation in equal measure. Elmgreen & Dragset’s outdoor public sculptures recontextualize their surroundings, such as well-known projects like Van Gogh’s Ear at Rockefeller Center in New York or Prada Marfa along Highway 90 in the middle of the Texan desert.  

Elmgreen & Dragset have held numerous solo exhibitions at art institutions worldwide, including Whitechapel Gallery, London (2018); Museum Haus Lange, Kunstmuseen Krefeld, Germany (2017); FLAG Art Foundation, New York (2016); Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Israel (2016); Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing (2016); PLATEAU, Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea (2015); Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen, Denmark (2014); Astrup Fearnley Museet, Oslo, Norway (2014); Victoria and Albert Museum, London (2013); Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Netherlands (2011); ZKM Museum of Contemporary Art, Karlsruhe, Germany (2010); Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León, León, Spain (2009); The Power Plant, Toronto (2006); Serpentine Gallery, London (2006); Tate Modern, London (2004), and Kunsthalle Zürich (2001).

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Image: Portrait of Elmgreen & Dragset

Photography: Elmar Vestner