The Welfare Show

Visiting The Welfare Show is a thought provoking, somewhat surreal experience, in which not everything is quite as it seems. One needs to examine the installations closely, to differentiate elements created by Danish artist Michael Elmgreen and Norwegian artist Ingar Dragset from the existing interior architecture of the gallery, which was their blank canvas. They altered its layout and lead visitors through a succession of corridors that simulate a variety of institutional environments and public spaces, including a hospital corridor, a waiting room, and an airport baggage hall. Their aim is to alert us to the ways in which the social policies of the welfare state govern …