Dan Wolgers
The provocateur of conceptual art.
In 1993 Dan Wolgers had the benches from his exhibition at Liljevalchs sold at auction – one of the most talked-about conceptual gestures in Swedish art. His works challenge the rules of art.
Dan Wolgers was born in 1955 in Stockholm. He is the son of the entertainer and poet Beppe Wolgers and grew up in a cultured environment. He trained as an artist in Stockholm and in the 1980s and 90s became one of the most talked-about Swedish conceptual artists.
Wolgers is known above all for acts that test where the boundaries of art lie. The most famous example came in 1993, when he took part in an exhibition at Liljevalchs Konsthall in Stockholm. He took the gallery’s own benches and had them sold at auction as his artwork. The incident led to a police report and an intense debate in the media. Who owns a work, and what is the difference between art and theft? Several of his other actions have similarly made the news far beyond the art world.
Behind the provocations lies a considered position. Wolgers often works with language, humour and small displacements of everyday objects and situations. He has made sculptures, photographs, objects and public works. A recurring device is to let a simple idea have large consequences, so that the audience itself has to work out what has actually happened.
Wolgers has exhibited at museums and art galleries and has made public art in several places in Sweden. He has shaped the image of conceptual art in Sweden and shown that art can be a way of asking questions of society, not just objects to look at. At the same time he has divided the public: to some he is a sharp thinker, to others merely a provocateur.