Elmgreen & Dragset - Connie Butler

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Résumé :
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.

Biographie:
INTERVIEW : LINDA YABLONSKY has worked as an art critic and journalist since 1990, contributing to a variety of publications, including The New York Times, The Art Newspaper, W, Bloomberg News and Artforum. From 2005 to 2017 she was the leading voice of Artforum.com's 'Scene & Heard' diary, and wrote numerous essays for exhibition catalogues for artists such as Anish Kapoor, Mark Morrisroe, Richard Phillips, Marilyn Minter, Francesco Vezzoli, Keith Sonnier and Pipiloti Rist among others. Throughout the 1990s, she directed NightLight Readings, a writers-in-performance series, and in 2002 was a founding producer of the streaming art radio channel, WPS1.org for MoMA/P.S.1. Based in New York, Yablonsky is also the author of The Story of Junk. A Novel (1997) as well as a biography on Jeff Koons. SURVEY : MARTIN HERBERT is a writer and critic living in Berlin. He is associate editor of Art Review and a regular contributor to Artforum, Frieze, and Art Monthly, and has lectured in art schools internationally. Between 2013-15 he served on the acquisitions committee for Arts Council England, and was a Juror for the Turner Prize in 2017. He is the author of Mark Wallinger (2011), The Uncertainty Principle (2014), and Tell Them I Said No (2016). FOCUS : CONNIE BUTLER is Chief Curator at the Hammer Museum at the University of California in Los Angeles. From 2006-13 she served as the Robert Lehman Foundation Chief Curator of Drawings at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Prior to that, she was a curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MoCA), Los Angeles, from 1996 to 2005. STUDIO VISIT : JASON SCHMIDT is a photographer and director who specializes in portraits of artists and cultural figures, as well as architecture and interiors. His work has been collected in two books, Artists (2007) and Artists II (2015). Schmidt shoots regularly for magazines including Architectural Digest, The New York Times T Magazine, Vogue, W, and Wallpaper.

Sommaire:
Martin Herbert is associate editor of Art Review and a regular contributor to publications such as Artforum, Frieze, and Art Monthly.Jason Schmidt is a photographer, based in New York....