BERLIN.- Galerie Max Hetzler presents Momentan nicht erreichbar, Elmgreen & Dragset’s first exhibition with the gallery, at Potsdamer Straße 77-87 in Berlin. Through a series of figurative sculptures, the artist duo invites viewers to step into a world of introspective and fragile everyday moments. They pose the question: are the characters that populate the space lost, or are they about to find themselves?
Momentan nicht erreichbar opens with a black-patinated bronze sculpture of a vulture perched on a bare tree (Von Oben), as if waiting for the right moment to feed. Just beyond, a sculpture of male figure dressed in hiking gear (L’Addition (Black Bronze)) appears to trek through a distilled snowscape. With his face turned slightly away from the viewer, the lone wanderer seems remote yet trapped within the surrounding walled environment of the white cube.
Upstairs, a figure with a camera leans over the bridge leading to the first-floor galleries, poised to take a photo of the scene below (The Examiner, Fig. 3 (Black Bronze)). Absorbed in his voyeuristic activity, he inversely becomes the object of the visitors’ gaze. In the adjacent gallery space, there is a bronze figure of a boy sitting on a washing machine (60 Minutes (Black Bronze)). His hands are folded as he looks towards the floor in a contemplative pose. Across the room, Elmgreen & Dragset have created a tableau made of mirror-polished stainless steel: a small boy standing in his underwear wearing a pair of adult-sized pumps (Morning). He appears to be staring at his reflection in a mirror hanging on the wall. A tube of lipstick lies on the floor next to him.
The final room presents a sculptural snapshot rendered in white-lacquered bronze. A helmeted man stands with his hands on his hips, looking down at his toppled moped (Delivery). The box strapped to the back of his vehicle implies that he may be a delivery worker. Behind him, three painting panels (Schlechte Laune, Gute Laune, Scheißegal) depict an approaching snowstorm against a night sky.
The exhibition’s German title, Momentan nicht erreichbar, translates to ‘currently not available.’ As this phrase suggests, all the male figures are, in their own way, absorbed in their own internal universe. Their gazes are often obscured, averted, or focused on something beyond the visitor’s sight. This lack of reciprocal engagement positions the viewer as an outsider, seeing only a glimpse of these personal and intimate situations.
Elmgreen & Dragset’s sculptures often challenge how masculinity is traditionally portrayed, presenting figures that embody introspection and vulnerability rather than heroic action. From the boy trying on high heels to the lonely hiker crossing a wintry landscape, the works show solitary moments of self-confrontation. The figures here are not out to prove anything to anyone – they are simply navigating their own realities and testing their own limits, seemingly on the brink of discovering what they might be capable of.
Michael Elmgreen (b. 1961 in Copenhagen, Denmark) and Ingar Dragset (b. 1969 in Trondheim, Norway) live and work in Berlin, Germany. Elmgreen & Dragset’s work has been internationally exhibited in institutions and public spaces including Musée d’Orsay, Paris; Amorepacific Museum of Art, Seoul (both 2024–2025); Kunsthalle Bielefeld (2024); Centre Pompidou-Metz; Kunsthalle Prague (both 2023); Fondazione Prada, Milan (2022); Würth Museum 2, Künzelsau (2021); Espoo Museum of Modern Art (2020); Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas (2019); Whitechapel Gallery, London; FIAC Hors les Murs, Paris (both 2018); Kunstmuseen Krefeld – Haus Lange Haus Esters (2017); UCCA – Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing; Grand Palais, Paris (both 2016); PLATEAU, Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul (2015); Astrup Fearnley Museet, Oslo; Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen (both 2014); Victoria and Albert Museum, London (2013); Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam; Sculpture International Rotterdam; Thorvaldsens Museum, Copenhagen (all 2011); Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León; Centre Pompidou, Paris (both 2009); Trondheim Kunstmuseum (2008); Serpentine Gallery, London (2006); and Tate Modern (2004), among others. The artists’ represented the Fourth Plinth Commission, in Trafalgar Square, London (2012); and the Danish and Nordic Pavilions at the 53rd Venice Biennale (2009).
Elmgreen & Dragset's work is in the public collections of Aïshti Foundation, Beirut; Astrup Fearnley Museet, Oslo; Centre National des Arts Plastiques, Paris; Denver Art Museum; Fondazione Prada, Milan; Fonds National d’Art Contemporain, Paris; Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin; Kistefos Museum, Jevnaker; Kode Art Museums, Bergen; Kunsthalle Zürich; Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek; mumok, Vienna; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Nasjonalmuseet, Oslo; Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich; Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main; and TBA21 Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, Vienna; among many others.
