Drama Queens · film projection followed by a meeting with Elmgreen & Dragset, Christophe Leribault and Nicolas Gausserand

For "L’Addition", Elmgreen & Dragset have created an architectural intervention in the Musée d’Orsay’s sculpture nave, presenting their own figurative sculptures alongside the museum’s nineteenth century collection. In doing so, the artists facilitate a dialogue between contemporary and historic representations of masculinity, creating connections across centuries in what they call a “transhistorical flirtation.”

This isn’t the first time Elmgreen & Dragset have taken on the sculptural canon. On the occasion of "Skulptur Projekte Münster 07", the artist duo created Drama Queens in collaboration with Tim Etchells, a stage-based performance that imagines the secret lives of seven iconic sculptures from the twentieth century: Walking Man (Alberto Giacometti, 1947), Elegy III (Barbara Hepworth, 1966), Rabbit (Jeff Koons, 1986), Four Cubes (Sol LeWitt, 1971), Untitled (Granite) (Ulrich Rückriem, 1984), Cloud Shepherd (Jean Arp, 1953), and Brillo Box (Andy Warhol, 1964). Taken out of their natural habitat—the art museum—and placed onstage, the artworks chatter and bicker, reflecting on the relationships between art and its audience.

Drama Queens has been shown at theaters and art institutions worldwide, including the Old Vic (London, 2008), Stadt Theater Basel (2008), and Centre Pompidou (Paris, 2009)

Intervenants

• Elmgreen & Dragset, artists ;
• Christophe Leribault, President, Établissement public du château, du musée et du domaine national de Versailles ;
• Nicolas Gausserand, Advisor to the President in charge of international issues and contemporary programs, Musée d'Orsay.