© Elmgreen & Dragset / BONO. Photo: © Florian Holzherr
Dilemma
- Date 2017
- Unveiled 2017
- Material Bronze
- Dimensions 450 cm
«The theme of childhood has occupied us for many years. The boy stands there right on the edge, hesitating: to jump or not to jump? I was among those who didn’t jump, and had to take the embarrassing walk back along the diving board. It is the small episodes in life that stay with us as memories. (...) You don’t actually have to jump. It takes courage to climb down again without jumping too. It requires a different kind of courage.»
Photo: © Florian Holzherr
Elmgreen & Dragset
(b. Copenhagen / Trondheim,)
Danish Michael Elmgreen (b. 1961) and Norwegian Ingar Dragset (b. 1969) have collaborated since 1995, and is an award-winning artist duo working within various media such as sculpture, installation and performance. In their works they criticise institutionalised systems and challenge the public’s perception of social spaces. The duo has exhibited at several major institutions such as Tate Modern, London, The New Museum, New York, the Astrup Fearnley Museum, Oslo, and they represented Norway and Denmark at the 2009 Venice Biennale, where they curated both the Danish and the Nordic Pavilion. Their contribution was a project title The Collectors, and its core concept was the transformation of the pavilions into two seemingly abandoned homes, packed with artworks by 24 international artists, as well as the duo’s own works. Their work is in the collections of, among others, the Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; the Centre Poumpidou, Paris, Louisiana Museum for Modern Art, Humlebæk; Kistefos Museum, Jevnaker, the Astrup Fearnley Museum, Oslo; and the National Museum, Oslo. In 2015 they were appointed honorary doctors at NTNU (Norwegian Univeristy of Science and Technology).
In Dilemma we observe a boy standing on the edge of a diving board. It’s a familiar scene; a situation most of us have experienced or seen. The heart races, thoughts spinning. Will he take the plunge into the unknown? Or will he turn around to climb down again? Perched at the edge of the board, the boy’s crouched posture indicates that he is simultaneously excited and apprehensive about the potential jump. The sculpture serves as a metaphor for growing up and entering the adult world, and the pressure to act – to take chances and to live up to expectations.
As in previous works by Elmgreen & Dragset the deep-rooted classical sculpture tradition is challenged in this work. In opposition to many other public sculptures, which celebrate heroic acts and symbols of power, Dilemma celebrates how an everyday scene, however brief, can still be of existential importance.
Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset are an award-winning artist duo who have been collaborating since 1995. They explore questions about gender, individual and political identity, and the role of capitalism and art in the public sphere. Since 1997 they have worked on an ongoing series called Powerless Structures, where physical structures, like swimming pools, gallery spaces and tropes in public art are deconstructed and given new identities and, often, surprising connections. Well known objects are deprived of their function and challenge the viewer to re-evaluate the object. They have had exhibitions all over the world and their signature work is the bronze version of Powerless Structures, Fig. 101 (2012), a little boy riding a rocking horse. The work is a comment on the classical grand equestrian statues depicting conquerors. Dilemma is a part of this series, made especially for Ekebergparken.
© Elmgreen & Dragset / BONO. Photo: © Kristina A. Kvåle / Ekebergparken
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Avdukingen av Dilemma, 2017
Guided tours
Experience Dilemma and many of the other artworks in the collection with our art mediators. We offer guided tours for private groups all year round.