For more than three decades, Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset have challenged artistic and social conventions with wit and sensitivity. For Monopol, they created Boy with Bird, a tender sculpture that explores vulnerability, empathy and traditional expectations of masculinity.
The edition is presented alongside the artists’ exhibition Stilleben mit Gemüse at the Städel Museum in Frankfurt. For the 06/26 issue of Monopol, Deputy Editor-in-Chief Sebastian Frenzel spoke with the artists about their work and the new exhibition. Read the full interview here.
The Danish artist Michael Elmgreen and the Norwegian artist Ingar Dragset have been working together for more than three decades, questioning the rules of art with a great deal of wit and humor. Still Life with Vegetables, which is the title of her acclaimed exhibition, currently on view at the Städel Museum in Frankfurt, where they juxtaposes her works with those of the Old Masters. Years ago, they transformed the Nordic Pavilion at the Venice Biennale into the villa of a decadent collector; in the Texan desert, they installed a Prada store; and since 2012, a small steel boy has been sitting on a rock in Helsingør, gazing pensively out at the water like the famous Little Mermaid.
Are little boys allowed to be sensitive? Are they allowed to be afraid? How can we create space for emotions so that men and boys can escape the confines of machismo? Elmgreen & Dragset explore these questions in a whole series of sculptures. Their sculpture Boy with Bird is one such work, now available as an exclusive Monopol edition in small-format bronze casts.
It depicts a boy in rubber boots, tenderly and protectively holding a bird in his hand. Perhaps the bird has fallen from its nest, perhaps it is injured. Boy with Bird shows how a child is confronted with mortality for the first time. Many of us can remember discovering a small animal struggling for its life when we were children and instinctively trying to help it. Such early moments of existential drama encountered in everyday life can be deeply formative,” the artists explain.
Elmgreen & Dragset’s Boy with Bird is 26 centimetres high and is available in black-patinated or white-lacquered bronze. The edition is limited to 10 copies plus 2 artist’s proofs in each colour. The price is €10,500, including VAT. The price includes a handcrafted wooden crate (36 × 15 cm) and a certificate of authenticity.
In Frankfurt, the artist duo engage with the Städel Museum's 700-year-old collection. A conversation about Old Masters, new media, and museums as places where we emerge from our two-dimensional digital world.
Our Deputy Editor-in-Chief Sebastian Frenzel interviewed the artist duo for our June print issue. Read the full interview here.
ELMGREEN & DRAGSET: „Stillleben mit Gemüse“, Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main, on view through 17 January 2027.
Elmgreen & Dragsets "The Visitor", 2025, in front of Cornelis de Heems "Stillleben mit Gemüse und Früchten vor einer Gartenbalustrade", 1658.
