Throughout their career, Michael Elmgreen et Ingar Dragset (born respectively in 1961 and 1969 in Denmark and Norway) have redefined the way in which art is presented and experienced. Drawing from disciplines as divergent as
institutional critique, social politics,
performance and
architecture, in their sculptures and installations the artists reconfigure the familiar with characteristic wit and subversive humour. From the transformation of New York City's Bohen Foundation into a 13th Street Subway Station in 2004, to the siting of a Prada boutique in a Texan desert in 2005, and the insertion of institutional spaces within the architecture of a public gallery, as in the Serpentine Gallery's critically acclaimed “The Welfare Show” in 2006, their work raises issues around social models and social spaces, and prompts a re-thinking of the status quo.
