“Making art is an optimistic act in itself. If we didn’t care, we would just do nothing.”
A challenge to rethink the world around us.
Since 1995, Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset have created large-scale sculptures, installations and performances that douse new twists on modernist design in pointed social commentary. All of their work, whether a thirty-foot defunct swimming pool or a fictional set of a collector’s home, transforms familiar settings into humorous, uncanny scenarios. Public space is highly important. The conversations that the sculptures provoke within the public are just as important as the art-objects themselves. In fact, Elmgreen & Dragset see their work as a mode of civic duty, aiming to inspire independ...
Bio
Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset were born in the 1960s in Denmark and Norway, and have worked as an artist duo since 1995.
Projects
Millions have encountered their public commisions, which have taken place in iconic locations including London’s Trafalgar Square, New York’s Rockefeller Centre and Paris' Place Vendôme.
Awards
In addition to these high profile projects, the duo have received widespread critical acclaim - nominated for the Hugo Boss Prize in 2000, winners of the Preis der Nationalgalerie in Berlin in 2002, recipients of a special mention at 2009's Venice Biennale, winners of the BZ Culture Prize in 2020 and, most recently, awarded the 14th Robert Jacobsen Prize by the Würth Foundation in 2021.
