The Amorepacific Museum of Art proudly presents Elmgreen & Dragset: Spaces, an exhibition by the renowned artist duo Elmgreen & Dragset, who have consistently challenged traditional notions of how art is displayed and experienced. This exhibition, celebrating 30 years of their artistic partnership, is their largest presentation in Asia to date and features five unique installations: a full-scale family house, a public pool, a restaurant, an industrial kitchen, and an artist’s studio.
Michael Elmgreen, born in Copenhagen in 1961, and Ingar Dragset, born in Trondheim in 1969, began collaborating in 1995. Their early work often directly engaged with the architecture of exhibition spaces, but their practice has since evolved to focus on creating large-scale, immersive installations that replicate familiar scenes from daily life. By placing art within these environments, they challenge conventional exhibition practices and reveal the hidden values embedded in the places and objects that shape human experience. The duo is widely recognized for their landmark installations, such as Prada Marfa (2005) and Van Gogh’s Ear (2016). Over the years, they have been shortlisted for the Hugo Boss Prize at the Guggenheim Museum in New York (2000), won the Preis der Nationalgalerie at Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin (2002), received a special mention for their project The Collectors at the 53rd Venice Biennale, and were selected for London’s prestigious Fourth Plinth Commission in 2012.
Spaces is the first comprehensive survey of Elmgreen & Dragset’s work focused on their exploration of spatial environments. The exhibition showcases five immersive, space-specific installations that combine both existing works and new creations. Shadow House, a full-scale family home, extends the artists’ investigation of what “home” means by presenting it as a tangible architectural entity. A public swimming pool, a recurring element in their practice, highlights the decline of communal public spaces. The Cloud, a luxurious restaurant, explores the way culinary experiences have shifted, engaging both the senses and digital interactions; it is represented by a seemingly abandoned setting, save for a lifelike figure of a young woman in the middle of a FaceTime call. The industrial-style kitchen installation blurs the line between cooking space and laboratory, reflecting the rise of molecular gastronomy. The artist’s studio presents a collection of white-lacquered sculptures in various creative poses, capturing moments of artistic expression.
Visitors are encouraged to explore these spaces freely, weaving together their own interpretations and narratives from the details and hints left throughout each environment. Spaces is designed to be a place of discovery, where the ordinary is seen in a new light, inviting visitors to rethink the everyday realities that often go unnoticed. The Amorepacific Museum of Art invites its audience to immerse themselves in this experience, finding unexpected meanings and connections in each installation.
[Exhibition Overview]
Title: Spaces
Period: September 3, 2024 (Tuesday) to February 23, 2025 (Sunday)
Opening Hours: 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. (Ticket counter closes at 5:00 p.m.)
Closed: Mondays, January 1, Seollal, and Chuseok holidays
Location: Amorepacific Museum of Art, 100 Hangang-daero, Yongsan-gu, Seoul, Korea
Admission Information: Visit the APMA website at http://apma.amorepacific.com for details on admission fees