At first glance, these public conference doors, office entrances, and even a connecting door look like any other door in the building. On closer examination, though, security chains which mean the door can't be opened catch your eye. One double glass door has two spyholes in it; another has a bullet hole. Another door has a doorknob mounted on the wrong side. By adapting their works to the existing architectural language of forms, Elmgreen & Dragset seem to affirm them. In actual fact, however, their doors are a response to the high safety standards in buildings such as the Aviation Center, which regulate access to the building. The transparency and openness suggested by the glass facade also transforms – thanks to their subtle interventions – into a symbolic value, one that has little to do with the actual ease of access to the world of leading companies. 


Michael Elmgreen

born in Copenhagen

Ingar Dragset

born in Trondheim

Live and work in London and Berlin.
They have been working together since 1995.

elmgreen-dragset.com

  • 1997 Powerless Structures, Galleri Campbells Occasionally, Copenhagen
  • 1997 Twelve Hours of White Paint/Powerless Structures, Fig. 15, Galleri Tommy Lund, Odense
  • 1998 Dug Down Gallery / Powerless Structures, Fig. 45, Galleri i8 & Reykjavík Art Museum, Reykjavík
  • 1999 Galleri Nicolai Wallner, Copenhagen
  • 1999 Powerless Structures, Fig. 57-60, The Project, New York
  • 2000 Zwischen anderen Ereignissen, Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst Leipzig
  • 2001 Taking Place, Kunsthalle Zürich, Zürich
  • 2001 Powerless Structures, Fig. 111, Portikus, Frankfurt
  • 2002 How are You Today, Galleria Massimo de Carlo, Milan
  • 2002 Suspended Space, Taka Ishii Gallery, Tokyo
  • 2003 Short Cut, Nicola Trussardi Foundation, Milan, Italy
  • 2003 Spaced out, Portikus, Frankfurt am Main
  • 2003 Please, Keep Quiet, Galleri Nicolai Wallner, Copenhagen
  • 2003 Constructed Catastrophes, Fig. 2, CCA, Kitakyushu, Japan
  • 2004 Blocking The View, Tate Modern Gallery, London
  • 2004 Moving Energies, Museum Folkwang Essen, Essen
  • 2005 Prada Marfa, Art Production Fund/Ballroom Marfa, Marfa, Texas
  • 2005 The Brightness of Shady Lives, Galeria Helga de Alvear, Madrid
  • 2005 The Welfare Show, Bergen Kunsthall, Bergen, Norway / BAWAG Foundation, Vienna
  • 2005 Linienstrasse 160, Neue Mitte, Klosterfelde, Berlin
  • 2006 Would You Like Your Eggs A Little Different This Morning ?, Galleria Massimo De Carlo, Milan
  • 2006 The Incidental Self, Taka Ishii Gallery, Tokyo
  • 2007 This is the first day of my life, Konsthall Malmö, Malmö
  • 2007 Ti sto pensando, Villa Manin, Centre for Contemporary Art, Passariano
  • 2007 A Change Of Mind, Kunst am Bauzaun, Museion Bozen
  • 2008 Home is the Place You Left, Trondheim Kunstmuseum, Trondheim
  • 2008 Gedenkort für die im Nationalsozialismus verfolgten Homosexuellen, Berlin
  • 2008 Side Effects, Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Paris
  • 2009 The Collectors – Der Dänische and Nordische Pavilion, 53rd Venedig Biennale, Venezia
  • 2009 Drama Queens, Centre Pompidou, Paris
  • 2009 Trying to Remember What We Once Wanted to Forget, MUSAC, León
  • 2010 Celebrity: The One & The Many, ZKM | Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie, Karlsruhe
  • 2011 Happy Days in the Art World, Performa 11, New York / Tramway, Glasgow.
  • 2011 Amigos, Galería Helga de Alvear, Madrid.
  • 2011 The Afterlife of the Mysterious Mr. B, Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Paris.
  • 2011 Elmgreen & Dragset, Thorvaldsen-Museum, Copenhagen.
  • 2011 Silent wishes and broken dreams, Bayerische Staatsoper, München.
  • 2012 Harvest, Victoria Miro Gallery, London
  • 2012 Powerless Structures, Fig. 101, Die Vierte Plinthe, Trafalgar Square, London
  • 2014 Biography, Statens Museum for Kunst, Kopenhagen
  • 2014 Biography, Astrup Fearnley Museum für Moderne Kunst, Oslo
  • 2015 Aéroport Mille Plateau, Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul
  • 2017 Die Zugezogenen, Museum Haus Lange, Krefeld