This October, Elmgreen & Dragset unveil a striking new installation at MASSIMODECARLO Pièce Unique in Paris. Titled October 2025, the work turns the gallery’s window on rue de Turenne into a quiet yet provocative stage where art and life subtly intertwine. Known for their conceptual approach and refined sense of irony, the duo once again plays with visibility, perception, and the hidden rituals of the art world.
A hyperrealistic sculpture that reveals the unseen
At the heart of October 2025 is a hyperrealistic sculpture of a life-sized gallery assistant slumped over her desk, seemingly asleep. Installed directly behind the gallery’s glass, the sculpture appears as if a moment has been frozen in time. Passersby encounter it day and night, catching a glimpse of what feels like a private moment.
The ambiguity is deliberate. The artists invite viewers to construct their own narrative, blurring distinctions between exhaustion and resistance, between reality and representation. The everyday act of pausing becomes a poetic gesture, turning the office—a space usually hidden from public view—into the centerpiece of reflection.
Elmgreen & Dragset: continuing a dialogue across Paris
October 2025 follows Elmgreen & Dragset’s acclaimed exhibition L’Addition at the Musée d’Orsay, where they reimagined male figures in classical settings to question traditional ideals of representation. The new work, by contrast, focuses on intimacy and quiet defiance. Here, the sleeping assistant becomes a contemporary allegory—a figure poised between invisibility and rebellion, routine and reverie.
With this project, Elmgreen & Dragset once again remind us that the most profound transformations can occur not in monumental gestures, but in moments of stillness—when art, like life, pauses just long enough for us to look closer.
October 2025 will be on view from October 18, 2025, at MASSIMODECARLO Pièce Unique, Paris.
Don’t miss our interview with Elmgreen & Dragset, in which they discuss how their work explores human perception, the commercialization of nature, and the relationship between urban and natural landscapes.
ELMGREEN & DRAGSET
October 2025
Photography courtwsy of MASSIMODECARLO
