The New as the Surround System of Interiorityin Contemporary Art Exhibitions: Modernism and Contemporaneity in the Works of Elmgreen & Dragset

By and large, contemporary art witnessed a shift towards installation art, nailing a genuine habitat stressing the possibilities of interactivity and immersivity of the works. My article aims to examine the modern legacy of this “new” of contemporaneity, by analyzing the works of the Scandinavian duo Elmgreen & Dragset: their pool-like vertical structures and silicone mannequins establish a temporal loop between traditional effigies of sculpture and a contemporary consideration of the virtual dimension inside the palpable realm of the exhibition. My intention is to prove that instead of interactivity with and immersivity in the outside world, the purpose of such works is to create for the viewer a surround system of interiority, where interiority is one ingredient that contemporaneity borrows from modernism.