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Carsten Höller

Carsten Höller Revolving Doors, 2016 Mirrored revolving glass doors, aluminum, alucobond, and steel 219 3/4 × 219 3/4 × 89 3/4 inches (558 × 558 × 228 cm) Artwork © Carsten Höller, photo by Attilio Maranzano, courtesy Hayward, HangarBicocca

Carsten Höller Revolving Doors, 2016

Mirrored revolving glass doors, aluminum, alucobond, and steel 219 3/4 × 219 3/4 × 89 3/4 inches (558 × 558 × 228 cm) Artwork © Carsten Höller, photo by Attilio Maranzano, courtesy Hayward, HangarBicocca

Carsten Höller, Dice (White Body, Black Dots), 2014 Glass reinforced polyester resin / fiberglass, and poplar plywood on expanded poly-styrene core and mechanical connectors, 94 ½ × 94 ½ × 94 ½ inches (240 × 240 × 240 cm)

Carsten Höller, Dice (White Body, Black Dots), 2014

Glass reinforced polyester resin / fiberglass, and poplar plywood on expanded poly-styrene core and mechanical connectors, 94 ½ × 94 ½ × 94 ½ inches (240 × 240 × 240 cm)

Installation view, Carsten Höller: Experience, New Museum, New York, 2011–12 Artwork © Carsten Höller. Photo: Benoit Pailley

Installation view, Carsten Höller: Experience, New Museum, New York, 2011–12

Artwork © Carsten Höller. Photo: Benoit Pailley

Installation view, Carsten Höller: Experience, New Museum, New York, 2011–12 Artwork © Carsten Höller. Photo: Benoit Pailley

Installation view, Carsten Höller: Experience, New Museum, New York, 2011–12

Artwork © Carsten Höller. Photo: Benoit Pailley

Installation view, Carsten Höller: Experience, New Museum, New York, 2011–12 Artwork © Carsten Höller. Photo: Benoit Pailley

Installation view, Carsten Höller: Experience, New Museum, New York, 2011–12

Artwork © Carsten Höller. Photo: Benoit Pailley

Installation view, Carsten Höller: Experience, New Museum, New York, 2011–12 Artwork © Carsten Höller. Photo: Benoit Pailley

Installation view, Carsten Höller: Experience, New Museum, New York, 2011–12

Artwork © Carsten Höller. Photo: Benoit Pailley

Installation view, Carsten Höller: Experience, New Museum, New York, 2011–12 Artwork © Carsten Höller. Photo: Benoit Pailley

Installation view, Carsten Höller: Experience, New Museum, New York, 2011–12

Artwork © Carsten Höller. Photo: Benoit Pailley

Carsten Höller, 5 Giant Mushroom, 2009 Styrofoam, polyester paint, polyester resin, acrylic paint, core wire, surfacer, polyurethane foam, hard foam construction panels, steel, 5 parts: dimensions variable. Installation at Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, The NetherlandsPhoto by Attilio Maranzano / Courtesy the artist and Esther Schipper, Berlin

Carsten Höller, 5 Giant Mushroom, 2009

Styrofoam, polyester paint, polyester resin, acrylic paint, core wire, surfacer, polyurethane foam, hard foam construction panels, steel, 5 parts: dimensions variable. Installation at Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Photo by Attilio Maranzano / Courtesy the artist and Esther Schipper, Berlin

Carsten Höller, Singing Canaries Mobile, 2009 Powdercoated steel construction, wood, PVC, Dimensions variable

Carsten Höller, Singing Canaries Mobile, 2009

Powdercoated steel construction, wood, PVC, Dimensions variable

Installation view, Carsten Höller: Reindeers & Spheres, Gagosian, Beverly Hills, California, 2009 Artwork © Carsten Höller. Photo: Joshua White

Installation view, Carsten Höller: Reindeers & Spheres, Gagosian, Beverly Hills, California, 2009

Artwork © Carsten Höller. Photo: Joshua White

Carsten Höller, Wonderful, 2008 Aluminum channel letters, bulbs, DMX controller, 10 11/16 × 98 ½ × 4 inches (27.3 × 250.2 × 10.2 cm)Photo by Douglas M. Parker Studio

Carsten Höller, Wonderful, 2008

Aluminum channel letters, bulbs, DMX controller, 10 11/16 × 98 ½ × 4 inches (27.3 × 250.2 × 10.2 cm)
Photo by Douglas M. Parker Studio

CARSTEN HÖLLER Light Room, 2008 Double LED lamps, aluminum sheeting, cables, controller system Dimensons variable Installation at Kunsthaus Bregenz, Austria, photo by Markus Tretter / Courtesy the artist/VBK, Vienna

CARSTEN HÖLLER Light Room, 2008

Double LED lamps, aluminum sheeting, cables, controller system Dimensons variable Installation at Kunsthaus Bregenz, Austria, photo by Markus Tretter / Courtesy the artist/VBK, Vienna

CARSTEN HÖLLER R B Ride, 2007 Carousel Dimensons variable Installation at Kunsthaus Bregenz, Austria, photo by Markus Tretter / Courtesy the artist/VBK, Vienna

CARSTEN HÖLLER R B Ride, 2007

Carousel Dimensons variable Installation at Kunsthaus Bregenz, Austria, photo by Markus Tretter / Courtesy the artist/VBK, Vienna

Carsten Höller, Lignano Ski Lab, 2007 Chromogenic print on aluminum, 58 11/16 × 46 5/16 inches (149 × 117.5 cm), edition 2/3

Carsten Höller, Lignano Ski Lab, 2007

Chromogenic print on aluminum, 58 11/16 × 46 5/16 inches (149 × 117.5 cm), edition 2/3

Installation view, Carsten Höller: Test Site, Tate Modern, London, 2006–07 Artwork © Carsten Höller. Photo: © Tate Photography

Installation view, Carsten Höller: Test Site, Tate Modern, London, 2006–07

Artwork © Carsten Höller. Photo: © Tate Photography

CARSTEN HÖLLER Carousel Mirror, 2006 Mirrors mounted on MDF panels, lightbulbs, stainless steel seats, stainless steel chains, steel construction, electric motor, cables 295 1/4 × 185 × 185 inches (750 × 470 × 470 cm) Installation at Sudeley Castle, Winchcombe, UK

CARSTEN HÖLLER Carousel Mirror, 2006

Mirrors mounted on MDF panels, lightbulbs, stainless steel seats, stainless steel chains, steel construction, electric motor, cables 295 1/4 × 185 × 185 inches (750 × 470 × 470 cm) Installation at Sudeley Castle, Winchcombe, UK

CARSTEN HÖLLER Carousel Mirror, 2005 Mirrors mounted on MDF panels, lightbulbs, stainless steel seats, stainless steel chains, steel construction, electric motor, cables 295 1/4 × 185 × 185 inches (750 × 470 × 470 cm). Installation at Gagosian Gallery Britannia Street, London.

CARSTEN HÖLLER Carousel Mirror, 2005

Mirrors mounted on MDF panels, lightbulbs, stainless steel seats, stainless steel chains, steel construction, electric motor, cables 295 1/4 × 185 × 185 inches (750 × 470 × 470 cm). Installation at Gagosian Gallery Britannia Street, London.

Carsten Höller, Flugmaschine (Flying Machine), 1996 Steel, electric motor, cable connections, paragliding harnews, grip, wood, Scanachrome on PVC, Approx. 196 ⅞ × 236 3/16 × 236 3/16 inches (500 × 600 × 600 cm)

Carsten Höller, Flugmaschine (Flying Machine), 1996

Steel, electric motor, cable connections, paragliding harnews, grip, wood, Scanachrome on PVC, Approx. 196 ⅞ × 236 3/16 × 236 3/16 inches (500 × 600 × 600 cm)

About

Carsten Höller applies scientific curiosity to his work as an artist, exploring human behavior, perception, and altered states of consciousness with playful, sometimes unsettling humor. Many of the projects that comprise his self-described “laboratory of doubt”—which range from twisting slides to vision-flipping goggles—incorporate disorienting, even hallucinatory experiences that prompt viewers to question how they see and understand the world around them.

Born in 1961 in Brussels to German parents, Höller began to make art in the late 1980s alongside a number of artists experimenting with space and experience such as Pierre Huyghe, Rirkrit Tiravanija, and Andrea Zittel. After studying olfactory communication in insects at the University of Kiel, where he received a doctorate in agricultural science in 1988, and working as a research entomologist, he returned to art making full-time in 1993. Höller is often associated with relational aesthetics, a strategy, named by curator Nicolas Bourriaud in 1996, focused on human exchange and social context.

Among Höller’s early interactive projects are Flugmaschine (Flying Machine) (1996), a motorized steel armature to which viewers are attached before being hoisted through the air, and Giant Psycho Tank (1999), a sensory-deprivation chamber that facilitates a sensation of being bodiless. For the 1998 Berlin Biennale, Höller initiated what was to become his defining body of work, a succession of giant tubular slides that transform users’ experience of the buildings through which they move. In 2000 he installed a slide in the Milan office of designer Miuccia Prada, and in 2006 he constructed Test Site, a set of five slides in the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern, London. Höller is interested in the structures’ imposition of a temporary loss of control on participants, describing the resultant emotional state as “somewhere between delight and madness.”

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Carsten Höller

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Fairs, Events & Announcements

Carsten Höller, Giant Triple Mushroom, 2023, installation view, Gagosian, rue de Ponthieu, Paris © Carsten Höller. Photo: Thomas Lannes

Installation

Carsten Höller
Giant Triple Mushroom

Carsten Höller’s Giant Triple Mushroom (2023), a two-meter-high sculpture in polychrome aluminum, is on view in the vitrine at Gagosian, rue de Ponthieu, Paris, as part of the artist’s exhibition Clocks at the rue de Castiglione gallery.

The work’s form combines enlarged cross-sections of three different species of mushroom, including the red-capped fly agaric, reflecting Höller’s fascination with the idea that this notoriously toxic and hallucinogenic fungus may have played a role in the development of shamanism, and thus constitutes a link to ancient proto-religious culture. The three species also represent evolutionary time, as the different shapes, colors, and psychoactive ingredients of their fruiting bodies most certainly evolved from those of a common ancestor. Finally, Giant Triple Mushroom resonates with Höller’s continued exploration of doubling and rupture, and hence to the division and subdivision of time that is visualized in the clock works.

Carsten Höller, Giant Triple Mushroom, 2023, installation view, Gagosian, rue de Ponthieu, Paris © Carsten Höller. Photo: Thomas Lannes

Carsten Höller inside Brutalisten, Stockholm, 2022. Photo: Pierre Björk

Launch

Carsten Höller
Brutalisten Restaurant

On May 3, 2022, Carsten Höller will launch Brutalisten, a new restaurant concept in Stockholm and the latest embodiment of his long-term culinary and artistic project labeled the Brutalist Kitchen. The 28-seat restaurant will adhere to Höller’s “Brutalist Kitchen Manifesto,” a set of rules created in loose reference to Brutalist architecture, which is characterized by an emphasis on bare building materials over decorative design. The menu is classified in three sections: “Semi-Brutalist” dishes (using oil or minimal ingredients), “Brutalist” dishes (using salt and water), and “Orthodox-Brutalist” dishes (no additional ingredients).

Carsten Höller inside Brutalisten, Stockholm, 2022. Photo: Pierre Björk

Carsten Höller, Seven Sliding Doors Corridor (Outdoor Version), 2021, installation view, Luma Arles, France © Carsten Höller. Photo: Adrian Deweerdt

Permanent Installation

Carsten Höller
Seven Sliding Doors Corridor (Outdoor Version)

Carsten Höller’s installation Seven Sliding Doors Corridor (Outdoor Version), recently installed at Luma Arles, France, consists of electronic sliding doors with mirrored surfaces on both sides, through which a viewer can walk in an apparently endless passage. The doors are installed inside a corridor that traverses a pond in a garden. Motion sensors cause them to slide open when someone approaches and close when the person moves away. As a result, the movements of viewers alternately break and bind the visual limits of the space, which can be entered from either end of the corridor, increasing the likelihood of unexpected encounters.

Carsten Höller, Seven Sliding Doors Corridor (Outdoor Version), 2021, installation view, Luma Arles, France © Carsten Höller. Photo: Adrian Deweerdt

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Museum Exhibitions

Tatiana Trouvé, Les indéfinis, 2018 © Tatiana Trouvé

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What a Wonderful World

May 26, 2022–May 21, 2023
Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo, Rome
www.maxxi.art

This exhibition brings together major installations by fourteen international artists including key works from the museum’s collection and others commissioned for the occasion. The works on display investigate issues of scientific and technological progress relating to the challenges of the contemporary era. Work by Carsten Höller and Tatiana Trouvé is included.

Tatiana Trouvé, Les indéfinis, 2018 © Tatiana Trouvé

Carsten Höller, Divisions (Turquoise Lines and Pink Circles), 2014 © Carsten Höller

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Carsten Höller
Day

October 5, 2021–February 28, 2022
Museu de Arte, Arquitetura e Tecnologia, Lisbon
www.maat.pt

Carsten Höller: Day brings together an array of works producing light and darkness, including sculptures that function as lamps, projections, and architectural interventions, dating from 1987, when Höller was working as a scientist, to today. More than twenty works, many re-created especially for this show, unfold across the museum in an arrangement that creates a dialogue with its architecture. The exhibition space is illuminated exclusively by Höller’s art, leading audiences through multisensory experiences of altered perception.

Carsten Höller, Divisions (Turquoise Lines and Pink Circles), 2014 © Carsten Höller

Installation view, Dyr i kunsten, Arken Museum, Ishoj, Denmark, May 26, 2020–January 10, 2021. Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2020. Photo: David Stjernholm

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Dyr i kunsten

March 21, 2020–January 10, 2021
Arken Museum, Ishoj, Denmark
uk.arken.dk

Dyr i kunsten, or Animals in Art, features sculpture, installations, video, photography, and paintings by a wide array of international artists whose work explores the ways that humans study, categorize, live with, and use animals and how we thus attempt to gain a deeper understanding of ourselves. Work by Douglas Gordon, Damien Hirst, and Carsten Höller is included.

Installation view, Dyr i kunsten, Arken Museum, Ishoj, Denmark, May 26, 2020–January 10, 2021. Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2020. Photo: David Stjernholm

Carsten Höller, Gartenkinder, 2014 © Carsten Höller. Photo: Mike Bruce

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Carsten Höller
Reproduction

September 28, 2019–April 13, 2020
Copenhagen Contemporary
copenhagencontemporary.org

In this exhibition Carsten Höller examines the theme of reproduction, adopting an approach that is at once scientific and artistic. The museum is transformed into a large, biology-based playscape where, for example, the visitors are encouraged to crawl through the pips of a die, and where slow-moving merry-go-rounds and corridors of mirrors affect their sensory perceptions.

Carsten Höller, Gartenkinder, 2014 © Carsten Höller. Photo: Mike Bruce

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Press

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