ART CITIES: Milan-Elmgreen & Dragset

Based in London and Berlin, Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset have worked as a collaborative duo since the mid-1990s. 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.

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Fondazione Prada Archive

The exhibition “Useless Bodies?” by Elmgreen & Dragset explores the contemporary status of the body in our post-industrial age, in which it seems that our physical presence is losing its centrality and becoming increasingly superfluous. This shift now impacts every aspect of our lives: from our working conditions to our health, our interpersonal relationships and the way we retain information. The project explores how we adapt to a world increasingly based on two-dimensional imagery, and a labor market which has less use of our physical presence—not least in the light of the current pandemic. The exhibition occupies three of the buildings and part of the courtyard at Fondazione Prada in Milan. From the two floors of the Podium to the Nord gallery and through the Cisterna, Elmgreen & Dragset have created a sequence of site-specific, immersive instal-lations. Perception of the body is an underlying theme connecting many aspects of the artists’ work since they started their collaboration in 1995. In “Useless Bodies?” they investigate current transformations that are affecting our physicality across various parts of daily life—in relation to work, wellness, our domestic settings and within our shared public space. On the ground floor of the Podium, figurative classical and neoclassical sculptures meet figurative inspired by Fondazione Prada’s inaugural exhibition “Serial Classic,” curated by Salvatore Settis and designed by Rem Koolhaas in 2015, which explored seriality in classical art, Elmgreen & Dragset here juxtapose the contemporary with the historic. The  artworks  on  the  ground floor  reveal both similarities and differences in how artists have mediated the male physique and masculine identities in sculptural practices spanning centuries. Through a complex system of cross-references and gazes, the artists establish a dialogue between “now” and “then,” arguing for a rethinking of the historically defined role of being a “man.” The second floor of the Podium is transformed into a vast, abandoned office landscape that focuses on the changing role of the body in relation to work. Rows of identical, cubical desks fill the entire space, paying witness to how spaces were optimized for maximum productivity, before being left empty with no human presence. The installation, entitled “Garden of Eden” (2022), was conceived well before the recent Covid-related lockdowns, but can also be read as a monument to a time of workplace community, before “home office” became the norm. With its modular repetition of workstations, “Garden of Eden: recalls the geometric structures typical of 20th century Minimal sculpture. The environment, in which visitors can encounter tiny signs of the desk-owners’ private lives— like personal notes or coffee cups—also evokes dystopian movie sets. In the Nord gallery, Elmgreen & Dragset continue their ongoing interest in exploring the meaning of “home,” as first shown in their exhibition “The Collectors” at the Nordic and Danish pavilions at the 53rd Venice Biennale in 2009, typically combining interior architecture, design objects and artworks in order to establish a narrative. Here, the audience enters a futuristic vision of a domestic setting—an eerie fusion of a bunker, a spaceship and a science lab, portraying an unlivable home of extreme vanity. No area seems designed to fully accommodate the needs of the body, provide comfort, or encourage any sort of daily activity. The clinical, dehumanized appearance of this space raises questions on how we exist in our homes today, especially now that we share them with technology to such a high degree. As an “uninvited guest,“ the visitor is free to explore the space, gather clues and make up their own stories in an alienating environment reminiscent of a sci-fi movie, where the only occasional moving presence is that of a robotic dog. With the world’s richest entrepreneurs investing in space travel and cryonics, a home with a morgue in the living room might not be far off reality. In the Cisterna, the artists have taken their starting point in the wellness, leisure, and health industries and how these impose pressure on us to conform to new body ideals. The three rooms of this building are turned into a forsaken spa-like environment, including an abandoned swimming pool and a locker room. As our bodies are being rendered useless by technological innovations, the ever-expanding wellness, leisure and health sectors are offering countless new ways to “solve the problem of the imperfect body.” The central room of the Cisterna features a work titled “What’s Left?: (2021), which can be interpreted as a representation of the body that struggles to find its role today as a political actor or instrument of social change. The way our bodies are physically regulated in the public sphere is explored by a number of sculptures by Elmgreen & Dragset presented in the outdoor spaces connecting the various buildings at Fondazione Prada. These works are subtle alterations of everyday objects, such as street signs or public benches or a cash machine, all of which cannot be used as we would expect them to be. They encourage a re-evaluation of what we perceive as ordinary and highlight how we negotiate the control mechanisms embedded in public spaces. Centrally located is a section of the Berlin Wall, a relic from re- cent history and the era of the Cold war. Close to the entrance to the Torre visitors will find a car parked with two male figures seemingly sleeping inside. The car is filled with wrapped and crated artworks and on a closer look it becomes clear that the two young men might be art handlers. The car has Russian number plates and with the intimacy of the two male figures in their spooning position, this sculptural installation also speaks about the difficulties that the LGBTQIA+ population experiences in the current political climate in Russia.

Photo: Elmgreen & Dragset, Watching, 2017. Collection of Lora Reynolds and Quincy Lee, Austin. Courtesy of Perrotin. Photo: Brian Fitzsimmons and Andreas Koch

Info: Fondazione Prada, Largo Isarco 2, Milan, Italy, Duration: 31/3-22/8/2022, Days & Hours: Mon & Wed-Sun 10:00-19:00, www.fondazioneprada.org