Meta-art: Elmgreen & Dragset’s ’The Well Fair’ at Beijing’s Ullens Center
- (opens in new tab)
- (opens in new tab)
- (opens in new tab)
- Sign up to our newsletter Newsletter

The Scandinavian art duo Elmgreen & Dragset have always been fascinated with the sophisticated sausage-making machinery of the art world; the complex systems that assign cultural credit and commercial value, the chain of white cubes that add heat and sizzle. Nothing exemplifies the absurdity of that system better then the contemporary art fair; the banal ranked cubes of art, seemingly random objects in dead space; the baroque, burnished collectors; and the feudal hierarchy of access.
For their first exhibition in mainland China, the pair have created their own take on the art fair at Beijing’s Ullens Center for Contemporary Art. 'The Well Fair' smartly smuggles in and spins an 80-piece selective career retrospective with art fair-style booths and common areas displaying 20 year’s worth of E&D output. Of course, that’s not all there is to it.
Some pieces remain in crates or half-installed, leaning nonchalantly against walls. In one booth, two house painters repeatedly paint white already white walls, a recreation of the piece Zwischen anderen Ereignissen, first performed in 2000. In another two booths, the art pieces and furniture are exactly replicated. Even the gallerists, ‘played’ by identical twins, are mirror images and make identical moves, yawns and laptop tappings. Last year’s Secondary also doubles up, re-creating an auction room but mirrored from the middle and accompanied by the cacophony of auctioneers in action.
Adding to the general meta-ness are collected works such as The Named Series, 2012, carefully sliced and framed sections of white wall from the Guggenheim, Centre Pompidou and other grand art institutions; and last year’s Self Portraits, re-sized or re-materialised wall labels that name check works that have somehow inspired or affected the artists. A bar is inverted, with chairs trapped and tempting taps facing the wrong way and, perhaps most pleasingly of all, the VIP lounge is inaccessible to all.
As ever, Elmgreen & Dragset like to show their workings out and to open up conversations. The show’s catalogue includes pieces by Frieze co-founder Matthew Slotover as well as art critics, cultural psychologists and marketing specialists; an interview with the artists; and a WhatsApp conversation between Art Basel directors Marc Spiegler, Noah Horowitz and Adeline Ooi.
’The Well Fair’ displays 20 years worth of E&D output. Pictured: ’The Well Fair’, installation shot, featuring Eternity, 2014 and White Maid, 2014.
White Maid (detail), 2014.
As ever, Elmgreen & Dragset like to show their workings out and to open up conversations. The show’s catalogue includes pieces by Frieze co-founder Matthew Slotover as well as art critics, cultural psychologists and marketing specialists. Pictured: Powerless Structures, Fig. 529, 2014.
Pictured left: Home is the Place You Left, 2015. Right: Untitled (After the Lovers), 2015.
In two booths, the art pieces and furniture are exactly replicated. Even the gallerists, ‘played’ by identical twins, are mirror images and make identical moves, yawns and laptop tappings.
The Secondary installation re-creates an auction room, mirrored from the middle and accompanied by the cacophony of auctioneers in action.
Powerless Structures, Fig. 101 (Maquette), 2015.
Adding to the general meta-ness are collected works such as The Named Series, 2012, carefully sliced and framed sections of white wall from the Guggenheim, Centre Pompidou and other grand art institutions.
INFORMATION
’The Well Fair’ is on view until 17 April. For more information, visit the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art’s website (opens in new tab)
ADDRESS
Ullens Center for Contemporary Art
798 Art District
No. 4 Jiuxianqiao Lu
Chaoyang District,
Beijing 100015
VIEW GOOGLE MAPS (opens in new tab)
-
London architecture exhibitions 2023: a guide to the best shows this month
Exciting, beautiful and thought-provoking London architecture exhibitions; here's our pick of the finest in town, to visit and enjoy this month
By Ellie Stathaki • Published
-
Ai Weiwei's largest-ever Lego artwork revealed at London’s Design Museum
At London’s Design Museum, Ai Weiwei has unveiled Water Lilies #1, a new Lego recreation of Claude Monet’s iconic painting. We explore the vast new work ahead of the Chinese artist’s major show at the museum, opening on 7 April 2023
By Harriet Lloyd-Smith • Published
-
These Jacob Cohën jeans are entirely compostable
‘From nature, to nature,’ goes the tagline for Jacob Cohën’s ‘Endless Luxury’ collection, which is the latest innovation in the Italian denim brand’s pursuit of sustainable design solutions
By Jack Moss • Published
-
Elmgreen & Dragset in Milan: bodies, minimalism and home discomforts
Elmgreen & Dragset’s new show at Milan’s Fondazione Prada is an uncanny exploration of our dematerialising bodies and increasingly discomforting homes
By TF Chan • Last updated
-
Last chance to see: ‘Elmgreen & Dragset: The Nervous System’ at Pace New York
Scandinavian artist duo Elmgreen & Dragset caution against short-term memory in their first major show with Pace Gallery, calling our attention to crises beyond the pandemic
By TF Chan • Last updated
-
Laid bare: Elmgreen & Dragset create subversive massage parlour in Paris
In Paris, Perrotin’s Matignon gallery is transformed into an uncanny massage parlour in the hands of artist duo Elmgreen & Dragset
By TF Chan • Last updated
-
Life lessons from Elmgreen & Dragset’s tennis court
A new exhibition at Berlin’s König Galerie has the artist duo meditating on empty triumphs, power mechanisms and social divisions
By TF Chan • Last updated
-
Elmgreen & Dragset give poolside lounging a new slant in Miami
The Scandinavian duo’s Bent Pool is the final sculpture in a series of site-specific works to be permanently installed in and around the Miami Beach Convention Center
By Benoit Loiseau • Last updated
-
A deep dive into Elmgreen & Dragset’s fictional worlds
The first comprehensive monograph of the Berlin-based duo charts their working practice and art, from performative pieces in the late 1990s to their most recent public projects
By Emily McDermott • Last updated
-
Elmgreen & Dragset take the plunge at Whitechapel Gallery
By Jessica Klingelfuss • Last updated
-
Elmgreen & Dragset bring a different perspective to Istanbul’s art scene
By Charlotte Jansen • Last updated