ELMGREEN & DRAGSET
AÉROPORT MILLE PLATEAUX
PLATEAU, Samsung Museum of Art
55 Sejong-daero, Jung-gu - Seoul
23/7/2015 - 18/10/2015
Plateau, Samsung Museum of Art presents Aéroport Mille Plateaux, a major solo exhibition by the artist duo Elmgreen & Dragset. Inspired by the confluence of PLATEAU’s unique glass and steel architecture and the ideas of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari's landmark book, Mille Plateaux (1980), the exhibition transforms the museum into a fictional airport aligning art, philosophy, and everyday space into a unified perspective. Connecting the rhizomatic character of an airport as a “non-place” with the concept of “plateau”, Aéroport Mille Plateaux examines our contemporary space and identity as temporary and nomadic, anonymous and hybrid, intermediary and consumable, all at once.
In realizing an airport, Elmgreen & Dragset have meticulously replicated the details of its functional structures into the exhibition space. The check-in counters and security checkpoint, the waiting room and departure gates, the baggage claim and the duty free shop, all together create a perfect impression of an airport with various degrees of modification. The drama that unfolds in this setting reminds us of how the airport functions as a fluid boundary of all things, not just in terms of physical travel, but also the identity and hierarchy of our very existence. Floating above the border may give in to a feeling of boundless freedom and liberty, but the strict security measures that follow and assume control of our identity ironically remind us of our unstable existence. In contrast to the speed of flight, the speed of life in an airport also becomes removed, with only endless delays and waiting left behind.
Furthermore, this exhibition invites us on a layered voyage into the “world of Elmgreen & Dragset” through the gateway of an airport. While the exhibition is a survey of many of the artists’ most iconic works to date, it is itself a singular project. Exploring the concepts of deterritorialization and line of flight in the setting of an unknown city’s airport, this exhibition directly reflects the artistic journey of Elmgreen & Dragset over the years, tracing its course in a new context, and invites us to confront the exclusion and deception of the world, even if in a detour.
Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset, who began collaborating in 1995, are widely recognized for their oeuvre visualizing complex social issues and projecting their unpredictable artistic vision onto the spaces of reality. Including their best known series Powerless Structures (1997 - ongoing) and site-specific installation Prada Marfa (2005), their works investigate the way in which sites such as prisons, social security offices, hospitals, museums, galleries, and parks act as a means of social control. Adding the airport to this list of sites, Aéroport Mille Plateaux transforms PLATEAU, Samsung Museum of Art into a wholly different environment, which, like its namesake, invites us on a journey through space and time.
AÉROPORT MILLE PLATEAUX
PLATEAU, Samsung Museum of Art
55 Sejong-daero, Jung-gu - Seoul
23/7/2015 - 18/10/2015
Plateau, Samsung Museum of Art presents Aéroport Mille Plateaux, a major solo exhibition by the artist duo Elmgreen & Dragset. Inspired by the confluence of PLATEAU’s unique glass and steel architecture and the ideas of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari's landmark book, Mille Plateaux (1980), the exhibition transforms the museum into a fictional airport aligning art, philosophy, and everyday space into a unified perspective. Connecting the rhizomatic character of an airport as a “non-place” with the concept of “plateau”, Aéroport Mille Plateaux examines our contemporary space and identity as temporary and nomadic, anonymous and hybrid, intermediary and consumable, all at once.
In realizing an airport, Elmgreen & Dragset have meticulously replicated the details of its functional structures into the exhibition space. The check-in counters and security checkpoint, the waiting room and departure gates, the baggage claim and the duty free shop, all together create a perfect impression of an airport with various degrees of modification. The drama that unfolds in this setting reminds us of how the airport functions as a fluid boundary of all things, not just in terms of physical travel, but also the identity and hierarchy of our very existence. Floating above the border may give in to a feeling of boundless freedom and liberty, but the strict security measures that follow and assume control of our identity ironically remind us of our unstable existence. In contrast to the speed of flight, the speed of life in an airport also becomes removed, with only endless delays and waiting left behind.
Furthermore, this exhibition invites us on a layered voyage into the “world of Elmgreen & Dragset” through the gateway of an airport. While the exhibition is a survey of many of the artists’ most iconic works to date, it is itself a singular project. Exploring the concepts of deterritorialization and line of flight in the setting of an unknown city’s airport, this exhibition directly reflects the artistic journey of Elmgreen & Dragset over the years, tracing its course in a new context, and invites us to confront the exclusion and deception of the world, even if in a detour.
Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset, who began collaborating in 1995, are widely recognized for their oeuvre visualizing complex social issues and projecting their unpredictable artistic vision onto the spaces of reality. Including their best known series Powerless Structures (1997 - ongoing) and site-specific installation Prada Marfa (2005), their works investigate the way in which sites such as prisons, social security offices, hospitals, museums, galleries, and parks act as a means of social control. Adding the airport to this list of sites, Aéroport Mille Plateaux transforms PLATEAU, Samsung Museum of Art into a wholly different environment, which, like its namesake, invites us on a journey through space and time.
