Download "Elmgreen & Dragset: The Well Fair" press release.
Download "THE WELL FAIR DAILY".
About the Exhibition
Elmgreen & Dragset's The Well Fair is organized by UCCA director Philip Tinari with assistant curator Lotus Zhang. The exhibition is supported by GALERIE PERROTIN, Victoria Miro, London, Danish Arts Foundation, and Fritt Ord. The Art Newspaper China is the official media partner. Artsy is the online partner. The Well Fair is available on Artsy from 23 January, 2016. Sign up to receive notification.
The Well Fair is accompanied by a bilingual catalogue of the same title with essays addressing the cultural, sociological, psychological, and historical forces that have contributed to the development of art fairs as well as their future. Contributors to the catalogue include Frieze Co-Founder Matthew Slotover, ARCOmadrid Director Carlos Urroz, cultural sociologist Roberta Sassatelli (University of Milan), psychology and marketing specialist George E. Newman (Yale University), Chair of Art History at the University of Chicago Christine Mehring, and award-winning art critic Stefan Kobel. With an introduction by UCCA Director Philip Tinari, the catalogue also contains an interview with the artists and a dialogue in the form of a WhatsApp conversation between Art Basel Directors Marc Spiegler, Noah Horowitz, and Adeline Ooi, moderated by Tinari.
The exhibition is also accompanied by a suite of tailored public programs including conversations about the history of art fairs, contemporary art collection, the secondary market and art auctions, and new trends in art online. UCCA also presents a series of Norwegian film screenings that include the artists' own work Drama Queens.
About the Artists
Michael Elmgreen (b. 1961, Copenhagen, Denmark) and Ingar Dragset (b. 1969, Trondheim, Norway) are based in Berlin and have worked together as an artist duo since 1995. They have held numerous solo exhibitions in art institutions worldwide, including PLATEAU, Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul (2015); Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen (2014); Astrup Fearnley Museet, Oslo (2014); Victoria and Albert Museum, London (2013); Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam (2011); ZKM Museum of Modern Art, Karlsruhe (2010); Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León (2009); The Power Plant, Toronto (2006); Serpentine Gallery, London (2006); Tate Modern, London (2004); and Kunsthalle Zürich (2001). Their work has been included in the Liverpool (2012), Singapore (2011), Moscow (2011, 2007), Gwangju (2002), São Paulo (2002), Istanbul (2013, 2001), and Berlin (1998) biennials, and in 2009 they received a special mention for their exhibition "The Collectors" in the Nordic and Danish Pavilions at the 53rd Venice Biennale. Amongst their most well known works are Prada Marfa (2005)—a full scale replica of a Prada boutique in the middle of the Texan desert—and Short Cut (2003)—a car and a caravan breaking through the ground, which was first shown in Milan and now resides in the collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. The artists were shortlisted for the Hugo Boss Prize, Guggenheim Museum, New York (2000) and won the Preis der Nationalgalerie, Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin (2002). In 2012 Elmgreen & Dragset were selected for London's Fourth Plinth Commission in Trafalgar Square.