Elmgreen & Dragset (DK/NO)
Carlsberg Tap E
Elmgreen & Dragset
Michael Elmgreen, born 1961 in Copenhagen, Denmark. Lives in Berlin
Ingar Dragset, born 1969 in Trondheim, Norway. Lives in Berlin
The identical pair has special significance to Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset. It may take the form of an exact copy next to the original, or it may be an exact copy positioned in the wrong place. For U-TURN, this artist duo has developed their idea of the duplicate in a new direction. When a Country Falls in Love with Itself (2008) consists of a mirror placed in front of the sculpture of the Little Mermaid at Langelinie. The mirror enables the mermaid to see herself just as it enables the rest of us to see the mermaid and her reflection.
But what does Elmgreen & Dragset suggest by way of this simple intervention, a
mirror placed in front of the Little Mermaid? That she is no longer quite so interested, perhaps, in gazing towards a distant shore across the sea, but rather prefers to admire her own image. The mirror makes her self-absorbed instead of yearning, indicating that self-celebration often comes to revolve around national symbols with the less fortunate consequence that the perspective on the world is narrowed down. Unlike former artistic interventions against this sculpture, e.g. artist and Situationist J�rgen Nash's decapitation of the mermaid in 1964, Elmgreen & Dragset's rendition is peaceful. In their own quiet way, they dismantle the Little Mermaid as a national symbol; they criticize what she represents and duplicate her by way of her reflection. Danish national symbols are unique emblems. Since they express the very idea of unity, there can be only one queen and only one Kronborg Castle. By presenting the Little Mermaid in duplicate, they deprive her of symbolic value and show her as what she really is: an old bronze.
In Elmgreen & Dragset's previous works we have witnessed the white walls of
the exhibition room rise into the air carried by a balloon, or its floor rise up like an enormous wave. In one instance, the work was a large, empty exhibition room with a small sparrow on the window sill, once in a while twitching its wing. All of which was so life-like that it was sometimes hard to tell where the work ended and reality began. The two artists describe their works as "powerless structures", and indeed Elmgreen & Dragset's works actually do very little. They merely hold up a mirror to their surroundings, allowing these to do the rest.
-NH
Ingar Dragset, born 1969 in Trondheim, Norway. Lives in Berlin
The identical pair has special significance to Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset. It may take the form of an exact copy next to the original, or it may be an exact copy positioned in the wrong place. For U-TURN, this artist duo has developed their idea of the duplicate in a new direction. When a Country Falls in Love with Itself (2008) consists of a mirror placed in front of the sculpture of the Little Mermaid at Langelinie. The mirror enables the mermaid to see herself just as it enables the rest of us to see the mermaid and her reflection.
But what does Elmgreen & Dragset suggest by way of this simple intervention, a
mirror placed in front of the Little Mermaid? That she is no longer quite so interested, perhaps, in gazing towards a distant shore across the sea, but rather prefers to admire her own image. The mirror makes her self-absorbed instead of yearning, indicating that self-celebration often comes to revolve around national symbols with the less fortunate consequence that the perspective on the world is narrowed down. Unlike former artistic interventions against this sculpture, e.g. artist and Situationist J�rgen Nash's decapitation of the mermaid in 1964, Elmgreen & Dragset's rendition is peaceful. In their own quiet way, they dismantle the Little Mermaid as a national symbol; they criticize what she represents and duplicate her by way of her reflection. Danish national symbols are unique emblems. Since they express the very idea of unity, there can be only one queen and only one Kronborg Castle. By presenting the Little Mermaid in duplicate, they deprive her of symbolic value and show her as what she really is: an old bronze.
In Elmgreen & Dragset's previous works we have witnessed the white walls of
the exhibition room rise into the air carried by a balloon, or its floor rise up like an enormous wave. In one instance, the work was a large, empty exhibition room with a small sparrow on the window sill, once in a while twitching its wing. All of which was so life-like that it was sometimes hard to tell where the work ended and reality began. The two artists describe their works as "powerless structures", and indeed Elmgreen & Dragset's works actually do very little. They merely hold up a mirror to their surroundings, allowing these to do the rest.
-NH