Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset talk to Ben Luke about their influences—from writers to musicians, film-makers and, of course, other artists—and the cultural experiences that have shaped their lives and work. This is the first episode of A brush with featuring an artist duo.
Elmgreen & Dragset, L’Addition at Muséed’Orsay
© Elmgreen & Dragset
Over the past 30 years Elmgreen and Dragset have consistently created unexpected scenarios within and outside of the museum and gallery structure. Playful, even mischievous at times, and yet shot-through with searing critique and sincere expression, their sculptures and environments are fundamentally concerned with space, both private and public, and the people and communities that occupy it.
Elmgreen & Dragset, Tomorrow (installation view) (2013–14), Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Anders Sune Berg
Elmgreen was born in 1961 in Copenhagen and Dragset in 1969 in Trondheim, Norway. They now live and work in Berlin. They discuss the influence of Hannah Ryggen and Vilhelm Hammershøi, Michael’s meeting with Felix Gonzalez-Torres and his effect on their work, and how they feel their work relates to Samuel Beckett’s writing, and the final, moving scene of Wim Wenders’ film Paris Texas. Plus, they give insight into their lives in the studio and answer our usual questions, including: what is art for?
Elmgreen & Dragset, Same Love (2019)
Elmar Vestne
- Elmgreen & Dragset: L’Addition, Musee d’Orsay, Paris, until 2 February 2025; Elmgreen & Dragset: Spaces, Amorepacific Museum of Art, Seoul, 23 February 2025; K-BAR is open now at Khao Yai Art Forest, Thailand; Nurture Gaia, Bangkok Art Biennale, Bangkok, Thailand, until 25 February 2025.
This podcast is sponsored by Bloomberg Connects, the arts and culture app.
The free app offers access to a vast range of international cultural organisations through a single download, with new guides being added regularly. They include several of the museums in which Elmgreen and Dragset have shown their work, from the Fourth Plinth and the Whitechapel and Serpentine galleries in London, to the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas, Texas, US. If you download Bloomberg Connects, you’ll find that the guide to the Nasher includes Garden Highlights, with a map and audio content about 14 works, including those by Pablo Picasso, Magdalena Abakamowicz, and Nicole Eisenman. You can also explore the Nasher’s current exhibitions, including Hugh Hayden: Homecoming, with a curator’s tour of 17 sculptures by the Dallas-born artist, and Samara Golden: If earth is the brain then where is the body, with in-depth audio on Golden’s work.