Elmgreen & Dragset. Stillleben mit Gemüse

20 May 2026–17 January 2027
Städel Museum

Elmgreen & Dragset (Michael Elmgreen, b. 1961 and Ingar Dragset, b. 1969) have been collaborating since the mid-1990s and are among some of the most influential contemporary artists working today. While often being referred to as sculptors, the artists work in an expanded field that also includes installation, performance and architecture. Their works challenge familiar spatial structures and imbue both public and institutional spaces with a distinctive atmosphere. From 20 May 2026 to 17 January 2027, the Berlin-based artist duo will transform the Städel Museum into a fascinating interplay of reality and illusion. The exhibition “Stillleben mit Gemüse” presents sculptures and installations by the artists that enter into a dialogue with the architecture and the permanent collection of the Städel Museum, which spans over 700 years, opening up new perspectives.

Elmgreen & Dragset situate their figurative sculptures in such a way that they invite the audience to participate in an active game of storytelling. By redirecting and shifting the visitor’s gaze, the artists bring everyday moments that are easily overlooked into focus and turn these into poetic scenes charged with both criticality and humour. Through their elaborate sense of display, they are able to deal with serious questions about social structures, behavioural patterns rooted in conventions and institutional routines in an engaging rather than didactic way. The artist duo also examines how the museum itself shapes our perception of art history. They subtly subvert traditional forms of presentation and play with the rules of exhibition-making.

Unlike other exhibitions, “Stillleben mit Gemüse” extends across the entire Städel Museum. Two immersive installations in the Contemporary Art Collection form the core of the presentation, which unfolds throughout the historic collections and into the neighbouring Liebieghaus Skulpturensammlung. The exhibition places the visitors at the centre by inviting them to embark on a treasure hunt where artworks can be discovered in unusual places, often in almost absurd dialogue with the works from the collection. 

Philipp Demandt, Director of the Städel Museum, on the exhibition: “The Städel Museum is internationally renowned for its outstanding collection, which since 2020 also includes the bronze sculpture Si par une nuit d’hiver un voyageur by Elmgreen & Dragset, currently on display in the garden. I am therefore even more delighted that we are now able to present this internationally acclaimed artist duo with a comprehensive exhibition at the Städel. With subtle humour and the ability to unfold grand narratives through minimal interventions, Elmgreen & Dragset transform our view of the collection—from the Old Masters through Modernism to the present day—and offer our visitors truly extraordinary moments as they make their way through the museum.”

Svenja Grosser, curator of the exhibition and Head of Contemporary Art: “Elmgreen & Dragset succeed in making familiar museum structures experienceable anew through nuanced shifts. Through their targeted interventions, they open up interstitial spaces and question habitual perspectives and expectations. The exhibition centres around two large-scale installations, The Cloud and Garden of Eden, which cast a critical eye on the tensions between labour and luxury, ambition and illusion. The museum becomes a stage for their artistic practice, where nothing is as clear-cut as it first appears.”

Curator: Svenja Grosser (Head of Contemporary Art, Städel Museum)
Project Manager: Maja Lisewski (Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art., Städel Museum)

Sponsored by: Gemeinnützige Kulturfonds Frankfurt RheinMain GmbH, SEB, Städelscher Museums-Verein e.V.
With additional support from: New Carlsberg Foundation, Danish Arts Foundation
Media Partner: Monopol – Magazin für Kunst und Leben, Verkehrsgesellschaft Frankfurt am Main