Sanne Kofod Olsen, “Transgressive Spaces”, the catalogue Powerless Structures,1998

“Powerless Structures” is a series of installations and live acts in which
the artists focus on the deconstruction and re-construction of
institutionalized or otherwise dominated spaces. Transgressing the
representational spaces is a subversive act. The attempt to overcome it by
setting ones own standards intervenes the signifying structures that have
been constituting the meaning of space. This is what is done in the
collaborative works of Ingar Dragset and Michael Elmgreen."

Bill Arning, “Powerless Structures”, HONCHO, August,1999

“In the simple arrangements of walls, ceilings and floors, entrances and
exits, the dominant culture invisibly deploys its power, and its invisibility
makes its desires irresistible and seem both natural and preordained. While
it may seem obvious to state that the location of a door controls the point
in space from which you are allowed to enter a room, a careful analysis of
who decides where things are placed and what behaviors it demands or
prohibits, can be very revealing. Such theorizing about architecture, power
and control based on the writings of Michel Foucault is at the heart of an
ongoing sculptural project by the artist duo, Michael Elmgreen and Ingar
Dragset. Under the overall rubric of Powerless Structures, they have created
an architectural/sculptural language which does not control the behaviour of
those who come in contact with them. Rather, their powerless structures
license each member of the public to decide how to interact with and live
with their structures.”

Lawrence Chua, “ A Fireplace in Harlem”, Art/Text , no. 66, 1999.

“Architecture in Elmgreen & Dragset’s work, is not about a building, but the
very act of building. In that it may never be completed, it is an
architecture that continually breaks open, allowing one to remain in a world
that is forever being created. Its minimal surfaces encourage us to
participate but not to cling…to keep on moving.”

Franklin Sirmans “ Signifying Structures”, NU, The Nordic Art Review, issue
1, 1999.

“Like many artists who have recently taken forms of what has been historically
discussed as Minimalism (coldness, industrial materials, the deduction of
ideation) Elmgreen and Dragset invert these loose codifiers of the term.
Although they cite Deleuzian theories of representational space, it should be
no coincidence that the titles of their works also echo the title of one of
the first and most influential exhibitions of Minimal Art, “ Primary
Structures” curated by K. McShine at the Jewish Museum in New York, 1966.”

Lars Bang Larsen, “White Out”, Frieze, no 53, 2000

“Space in Elmgreen & Dragset’s work doesn’t announce itself, it has to be
brought out, challenged by the mundane presence of the activities that frame
it; it begs you to perform. Rather, it makes you perform, because it
analogises several types of behaviour.”

Hans Ulrich Obrist , interview, the catalogue Powerless Structures, 1998
“What I think is interesting about your work over the last couple of years is
that also your installation works have this performative side, this
combination of object and action.”