Elmgreen & Dragset
MUSEUM / Use Mum
2001

Installation of plexiglass letters
dimensions variable

Inv. no. 5750
Museum Morsbroich, Leverkusen
Permanent loan from the Museumsverein Morsbroich e. V.

Michael Elmgreen
1961, Copenhagen (DK) / lives in Berlin (DE)

Ingar Dragset
1969, Trondheim (NO) / lives in Berlin (DE)

A central aspect of the duo Elmgreen & Dragset’s conceptual works is the critical questioning of existing systems and power structures. As in the case of the installation MUSEUM / Use Mum (2001), their works often play with the structure and semantics of language. They impress precisely because of the simplicity of the ideas they use to open up complex fields of meaning and break down mental pigeonholes. 

In MUSEUM / Use Mum, the conventional meaning of the word “museum” is broken down into the elements “USE” and “MUM” via the unconventional arrangement of the individual letters on the wall and floor, raising questions about the meaning or use of the museum in the process. 

Since the late 1990s, Elmgreen & Dragset have developed several works under the title Powerless Structuresthat draw on French sociologist Michel Foucault’s concept of structure to critically examine the power and structure of institutions, including museums and galleries. In a similar vein, the work MUSEUM / Use Mum can also be read as a call to question and change existing structures within the art system.