Brilliant Ideas Episode #35:
Elmgreen & Dragset

In April last year, in front of the Rockefeller Center at the heart of New York, one of the busiest cities with a high population density, a huge sculpture of a swimming pool was installed. Titled <Van Gogh’s Ear>(2016), this artwork seems as if an actual swimming pool is set up, reminding us of a readymade art. The installation, however, had been elaborately designed and produced by Elmgreen & Dragset. Standing upright facing the sky, the sculpture looks similar to a human ear. The duo said they wanted to make an art piece from which people could feel comfort in the middle of the hectic city. The artwork made people escape from Manhattan for a while and think of joyful swimming under the hot sun in a secluded city, receiving an enthusiastic response from the New Yorkers.

Consisting of Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset, the artist duo was formed in 1995. Michael Elmgreen, a Dane, and lngar Dragset, a Norwegian did not start their relationship for creating art. After they became lovers, the artists realized their views on the world were similar and conducted various experiments together, forming a shared world of artworks. Though they broke up 10 years after becoming a duo and remained as friends, the artists have continued to create works together. They say that the change in their relationship vitalized their cooperative creation. <Memorial to Homosexuals Persecuted Under Nazism>(2008) is a cuboid memorial installed in a park in Berlin. In the style of minimalism, the artwork pays a tribute to the persecuted homosexuals in the past and celebrates the modern society, where homosexuals are freed much more from the past suppression. Inside the cuboid, a video of two men kissing is repeatedly playing, aiming to provide a new perception about homosexuality to everyone passing the park. In fact, many young students and people from various cultural backgrounds including Middle Easterners, who tend to be strict about homosexuality, visited the memorial and showed positive responses, which indicates that the artwork of the duo is making a little change to the perception of homosexuals.

Since 1995, artist duo Elmgreen & Dragset has been exploring the relationship among art, architecture and design. This duo observed of public eye through <Prada Marfa>(2005) which reproduced a Prada store in the middle of Texas. Mainly using sculpture and installation, they transform a familiar form to a characteristic shape and make the work to have humor and wit, but at the same time address a social and cultural problem.
Michael Elmgreen who was born in 1961 and Ingar Dragset, born in 1969 are both from Northern Europe and share another factor that they didn’t receive fine arts education. Now based in Berlin, Elmgreen & Dragset held several solo exhibitions at UCCA(Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, China), Galerie Perrotin, Victoria Miro, London and many others and participated in the ‘Venice Biennale’, ‘Singapore Biennale’ and the ‘Gwangju Biennale.’ For the ‘15th Istanbul Biennale’ in 2017, this duo is expected to take part in the as curator.