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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’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 has developed a site-specific slide for the Tower at Luma Arles, France, designed by Frank Gehry. According to Höller, “a slide is a sculpture that you can travel inside” and experience a unique emotional state situated between pleasure and madness. However, the artist emphasizes that it is not necessary to use the slide to make sense of it—observing other visitors travel between levels of the building is an equally stimulating experience.

Carsten Höller has developed a site-specific 40-meter slide for the Danish Architecture Center, Copenhagen. The spiral slide takes visitors from the Exhibition Forum four stories down to the ground floor. Of these playful structures Höller says, “Why are slides not used in architecture, to complement stairs, elevators, and escalators?” DAC Slide was donated by the Ny Carlsbergfondet.

Last year, seven artists, including Carsten Höller, led an augmented reality (AR) project in Apple Stores around the world. In collaboration with Apple and the New Museum, this project became [AR]T, a series of interactive AR installations. A new documentary directed by Ryan McGinley, available to watch on Apple TV, highlights the work of each artist and chronicles how they pushed the boundaries of their work to explore the uncharted territory of augmented reality art.

Opened May 31, 2018
Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn, Germany
www.bundeskunsthalle.de

Carsten Höller has developed a site-specific slide connecting the roof of the Bundeskunsthalle to the museum’s grounds. Bonner Slide (2018) aims to create a symbiotic relationship with the museum’s architecture. The slide has been inaugurated as part of the exhibition The Playground Project—Outdoor, but will remain in place for several years to be enjoyed during the outdoor season.

Aventura Mall, Florida
www.aventuramall.com

Commissioned as part of the Aventura Mall’s expansion, Carsten Höller’s new, site-specific Aventura Slide Tower is now open. Guests visiting will be awed by the towering 93-foot slides, which can be enjoyed from a distance, or while actually sliding down the sculpture—an experience producing what Höller likens to “an emotional state . . . somewhere between delight and madness.”