The artist duo has often incorporated double geometry and paired objects in their artwork. In this sculpture, they have connected two identical Toyota Priuses with a thick, industrial pipe that passes through the front windows of both cars. The ubiquitous hybrid Toyota Prius here symbolises something between the polluted industrial past and a hopeful green urban future.

Elmgreen & Dragset
Die Ganze Familie, 2020
Two Toyota Priuses, steel tubes
Courtesy of the artists

Adaptations are a continuation of Elmgreen & Dragset’s investigation into the control mechanisms that are embedded in the architecture of public space. On the one hand, the artwork is an accurate remodelling of a conventional road sign; on the other hand, its mirror surface asks its viewer to look inwards to draw on their own views and values. The work adapts to its surroundings, becoming almost invisible, rather than serving a didactic function.

Elmgreen & Dragset
Adaptation, Fig. 16, 2020
Stainless steel
Courtesy of the artists

Adaptations are a continuation of Elmgreen & Dragset’s investigation into the control mechanisms that are embedded in the architecture of public space. On the one hand, the artwork is an accurate remodelling of a conventional road sign; on the other hand, its mirror surface asks its viewer to look inwards to draw on their own views and values. The work adapts to its surroundings, becoming almost invisible, rather than serving a didactic function.

Elmgreen & Dragset
Adaptation, Fig. 9, 2020
Stainless steel
Courtesy of the artists

Adaptations are a continuation of Elmgreen & Dragset’s investigation into the control mechanisms that are embedded in the architecture of public space. On the one hand, the artwork is an accurate remodelling of a conventional road sign; on the other hand, its mirror surface asks its viewer to look inwards to draw on their own views and values. The work adapts to its surroundings, becoming almost invisible, rather than serving a didactic function.

Elmgreen & Dragset
Adaptation, Fig. 19, 2020
Stainless steel
Courtesy of Nicolai Wallner Gallery

This new work by Elmgreen & Dragset comprises of a vintage Mercedes station wagon which is a modern classic in the world of cars. Here, the artists have placed two sleeping figures inside the vehicle with a variety of packed objects, seemingly artworks. The license plates are Russian. Who are these figures, why are they travelling? This work exemplifies the artists’ often enigmatic approach, which encourages the viewer to fill in the gaps and imagine what might have happened.

Elmgreen & Dragset
The Outsiders, 2020 
Mercedes W123, male figures in silicone, clothing, packed artworks
Courtesy of Pace Gallery, New York and König Galerie

This sculpture of a car seat is titled I must make amends, referencing the lyrics of Janis Joplin’s song Mercedes Benz: “Oh Lord won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz, my friends all drive Porsches, I must make amends”. If you look carefully, the seat is in fact cast in bronze, which makes it like a stand-alone monument, or metaphor for the often unattainable dream of having a luxurious life, or a fine car at least.

Elmgreen & Dragset
I must make amends, Fig. 1, 2018
Bronze, patina
Courtesy of Massimo de Carlo, Milano | London | Hong Kong

The bundle is placed on the floor in front of an ersatz cash machine, appearing with its illuminated sign ‘24 Hour Banking’. Its title, Modern Moses, refers to the biblical story in which Bithiah, the daughter of the Pharaoh of Egypt, found a baby alone in the reeds beside the river Nile and named him Moses. In this display that brings the ancient theme up to this day, the artists invite the audience to question the systems that create poverty and desperation.

Elmgreen & Dragset
Modern Moses, 2006
Carrycot, bedding, wax figure, baby clothes, stainless steel cash machine
Courtesy of the artists

This brand-new work recalls the form of a children’s roundabout. The spinning design creates an optical illusion evoking the geometric, kinetic abstraction of the 1960s psychedelic culture. Sitting on the edge of the whirling base is a sculpture of a corgi, the famous dog breed, popularised by the Queen of England. The title of the work refers to the all-embracing impact of social media and the images shared and spread that feed our endless need for spectacle.  

Elmgreen & Dragset
Social Media, 2020
Brushed stainless steel, lacquer, motor, resin, and faux fur
Saastamoinen Foundation Art Collection

This small sculpture is part of the artists’ series of realistic looking cooling boxes, cast in bronze. Realised in a variety of colours, each cooler has a title that refers to a fictional place and date, like in this example, we can imagine what happened on a beach picnic on a summer day. Like Elmgreen & Dragset’s recurring interest in swimming pools as a metaphor of leisure and freedom, this modest object also carries the symbolic meaning of travel, recreation and carelessness.

Elmgreen & Dragset
Marbella Beach, June 21st, 1989, 2015
Bronze, paint
Private collection

The small, white rat is a recurrent motif in Elmgreen & Dragset’s oeuvre. The artists have staged it in various ways in different contexts, referring to the spectator as a voyeur, for example. Here the humanised-looking rat stands on its back feet under the jacked-up cabriolet that is missing a wheel. Does it know how precarious its position is? Does it, in its own way, understand the bigger picture? 

Elmgreen & Dragset
Trap, 2020
Peugeot Cabriolet, taxidermy rat, car jack
Courtesy of the artists

Elmgreen & Dragset have shown a figure of a young boy in various contexts. Sometimes he sits on a scaffold, sometimes on a balcony, or on another perilous ledge. Here, brought to the parking garage’s context, the youngster sits on top of a Mini Cooper. He can be seen as an embodiment of the uncertainty behind the decisions, actions, and expectations that are part of growing up.

Elmgreen & Dragset
The Wait, 2013–2020
Mini Cooper, epoxy resin figure, clothing, shoes
Private Collection

The series of Marriage works by Elmgreen & Dragset address the complexities of relationships. The work Gay Marriage could be understood as a reference to the criminalisation of homosexuality. In many countries same-sex couples are still forced to meet in covert locations, such as public toilets. Here, the conjoined drainpipes represent both the intimacy and emotional union of marriage, as well as the various tensions it may prompt.

Elmgreen & Dragset
Gay Marriage, 2010
Porcelain urinals, taps, stainless steeltubing
Astrup Fearnley Museet, Oslo, Norway

This early sculptural work – two pairs of Levi’s jeans and two pairs of Calvin Klein underpants – symbolises Elmgreen & Dragset’s collaboration and visually represents them as a duo. The jeans are typical of a late 1990s dress code that crossed cultures, styles and interests. This is one of the first examples of the artists’ sculptural works in which the audience is left to imagine what could have taken place.

Elmgreen & Dragset
Powerless Structures, Fig. 19, 1998.
Underwear, blue jeans
Courtesy of the artists

This work appears to be a real handrail, but on closer inspection the smooth chrome surface is actually coursing with veins, recalling the human circulatory system and its network of blood vessels. Relating to how bodies are steered through public spaces and how objects can and do assist the body in today’s world, this work addresses human vulnerabilities, and the notions of safety and impending danger.

Elmgreen & Dragset
Humanized Architecture, 2019
Polished stainless steel
Courtesy of the artists

The sculpture resembles a classical statue or ancient ruin. Described by the artists as an ‘anti-heroic sculpture,’ it depicts the fallen figure of a man who was presumably once perceived as valiant and brave. The hand on his shoulder indicates the trace of a second person, now broken away, imbuing the work with an air of solitude and isolation. Who was his companion?

Elmgreen & Dragset
Some Stayed On While Others Left, 2018
Epoxy resin, patina, lacquer, steel
Courtesy of Victoria Miro, London /Venice

This seemingly simple sculpture combines two readymades: a tractor tyre and a dirty boiler suit. These objects represent traditional notions of masculinity with connotations of sweat and muscle at the repair shop. The absent body questions the role of physical labour in a post-industrial reality. Like the title suggests, the work also references the artist Francis Bacon, perhaps his well-known painting of crucifixion, but with an ironic twist. The work plays with the macabre image of Bacon, and with the tradition on portraying masculinity.

Elmgreen & Dragset
After Francis Bacon, 2014
Rubber, steel, boiler suit
Courtesy of the artists

Here, a large industrial tube appears to penetrate the floor, as if extended into the museum’s inner structure. It even releases vapour, which strengthens the illusion of being an integral part of a technical system. Elmgreen & Dragset suggest that the steam seems to reveal a weakness in the foundations of the institution, a forewarning of its demise.

Elmgreen & Dragset
Overheated, 2019
Stainless steel, steel, smoke, electronics
Courtesy of Massimo de Carlo, Milano | London | Hong Kong

This work invites visitors to go through the gate, under the tattered sign reading Miracle, escorted by the penetrating stare of a vulture. The sharp-eyed, scavenging bird is a recurrent motif in Elmgreen & Dragset’s exhibitions, a metaphor for a critic. The torn chain link fence, the bags of sand – all signal a borderline, a place-of-no-return. The title of the work suggests we join the rite and move along to the next stage – metaphorically in life and physically in the exhibition

Elmgreen & Dragset
Rite of Passage, 2014
Galvanised steel fence, glass fibre vulture
Courtesy of the artists

In this installation the artists have collapsed an asphalt square and turned it into an urban version of land art. The massive, broken shards of asphalt stack up like a wreckage. The chunks of asphalt piled and scattered around the room can also be seen as a metaphor for broken dreams of unity and the lack of communal visions in a world of uncertainty and individualism.

Elmgreen & Dragset
Broken Square, 2018
Asphalt, styrofoam, stainless steel
Courtesy of Perrotin Gallery

This door is impossible to open. The artists often use familiar objects, such as a door, and change its common meaning by breaking down the item’s normal function so it becomes something new and inspires a new way of thinking. In fact, the door is part of Elmgreen & Dragset’s ongoing series titled Powerless Structures, in which they investigate how architecture can control human action, and how these conventional structures can be challenged.

Elmgreen & Dragset
Powerless Structures, Fig. 123, 2000
MDF, wood, hinges, door handles and locks
Courtesy of the artists

This work is like a final statement in the exhibition. It is a rotating advertising billboard which instead of flipping ads continuously tells the same blunt message, ’This space can’t be yours’. Empty billboards usually state the reverse ’This space can be yours!’, indicating an advertising space for rent. Here, Elmgreen & Dragset deny the original function and purpose of the object and hence pose a rhetorical question about the ownership of the space.

Elmgreen & Dragset
This Space Can’t Be Yours, 2006
Billboard with rotating panels, aluminium frame, plot lettering
Private Collection