Elmgreen and Dragset
Michael Elmgreen, born 1961 in Copenhagen, Denmmark, und Ingar Dragset, born 1969 in Trondheim, Norway, live and work in Berlin, Germany. Known as Elmgreen & Dragset, the artist duo has worked collaboratively since 1995. Initially focused on performances that questioned traditional exhibition formats, their work has evolved to encompass immersive installations and sculptures. By reconfiguring and displacing everyday objects and spaces, their art draws attention to agencies embedded in everyday objects and spaces that define our public and private lives. Their work is known for its subversive humor and wit, while simultaneously addressing social and cultural concerns.
Belly Door
2006
From Door Cycle
Wooden board with white painted (acrylic) fiber glass resin on polyurethane foam. Size: 200 x 100 x 40 cm (78¾ x 39½ x 15¾ in). Edition: 15, signed and numbered on separate label.
Belly Door was Elmgeen & Dragset’s contribution to the group project Door Cycle. Inspired by Willem de Kooning’s Door Cycle (1964-1966), a series of female figures painted on hollow-core doors, Schellmann Art invited 16 artists to create artworks on prefabricated hollow-core doors. For their edition, Elmgreen & Dragset transformed the door, an everyday architectural element that we all experience in a direct, physical way, into a partially human form. Visibly female, it directly reminds us of the original inspiration for the project: de Kooning's "Woman" paintings.
