"Carsten Höller and Stefano Mancuso: The Florence Experiment" is now on view through August 26 at Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, Italy.
Carsten Höller and plant neurobiologist Stefano Mancuso are collaborating on "The Florence Experiment," which enables the pair to study the interaction between human beings and plants. Visitors may participate in two very different experiments, the first entailing a descent on a 65-foot slide and the second involving carefully curated screenings in two special cinema theaters. The feelings of excitement, surprise, amusement, and fear experienced by the participants will be compared with the growth and reactions of various kinds of plants in order to study the empathy between plant organisms and human beings.
Read more: http://fal.cn/4gRP
Carsten Höller is collaborating in the exhibition design for "Bodys Isek Kingelez: City Dreams" at The Museum of Modern Art, New York.
The exhibition opens this Saturday, May 26! Carsten Höller, who has a history of working with Congolese artists, is collaborating in the exhibition design for "Bodys Isek Kingelez: City Dreams" at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Bodys Isek Kingelez, who died in 2015 and was based in what was then Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo), made sculptures of imagined buildings and cities that reflected his dreams for his country, his continent, and the world.
Read more: http://fal.cn/yy73
Open to the public, Carsten Höller's Aventura Slide Tower is a 9-foot high site-specific installation that allows users to travel 15 MPH to the ground from the sky.
Last week, Carsten Höller celebrated the public opening of his new slide for Miami's Aventura Mall. Forbes Magazine observes: Installing art in the mall is a way for culture to reach the masses — it’s also a draw for the sorts of high-end consumers that populate Art Basel.
Check out pics of the festivities and read the full article by clicking HERE.
It’s a safe bet that anyone who’s spent a prolonged amount of time looking at a painting—or failing that, can recall the Seurat scene from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off—can recognize the meditative power of art. But several artists have taken this idea further, building entire environments meant to help viewers experience deep serenity or contemplation. From giant saltwater tanks to secluded Appalachian outposts, these nine works provide space to guide in focused meditation.
Carsten Höller, Giant Psycho Tank, 1999
That Höller got his start as a scientist—an entomologist, specifically—explains the clinical appearance of this large sensory deprivation chamber’s polypropylene walls. But the work’s intended effect leans spiritual. Visitors to Höller’s 2011–12 “Experience” show at the New Museum were encouraged to disrobe and float in a shallow pool of an epsom salt solution. The salt holds the viewer in perfect equilibrium as body-temperature water drowns out all outside sensation. Höller has said the tank is meant to induce such extreme relaxation that visitors begin to have an out-of-body experience. However, as some critics have pointed out, when laying naked in the middle of a crowded museum, separating yourself from the present moment is easier said than done.
James Turrell, Bindu Shards, 2010
From the outside, Bindu Shards may resemble concept art for an Apollo module, but inside, the room is unearthly in an entirely different sense. With the “Perceptual Cells” series, to which this work belongs, Turrell sought to induce what he called “behind-the-eye seeing.” To view the piece, visitors lie on a narrow bed, and an assistant slides them into the cell as if they were entering an MRI scanner. Inside, they are enveloped in a field of soft light. An assistant cycles through certain light cycles that occupy the field of vision. Turrell says the overwhelming stimulation is meant to induce theta brain waves, which occur naturally during focused meditation or before sleep.
What's the latest NOW? Carsten Höller and Daniel Birnbaum, director of the Moderna Museet, Stockholm, discuss the “unsaturated,” the appeal of the mushroom, and how art can take knowledge beyond the limits of the scientific. Read the conversation and be sure to watch the accompanying installation video in the link HERE: http://www.gagosian.com/now/carsten-holler-in-conversation-with-daniel-birnbaum
"I start with a formula to get a process going, then the formula takes over and continues into infinity on its own. It is not about creative decisions anymore; there is no choice, only reason."
—Carsten Höller.
"Carsten Höller: REASON" at Gagosian West 24th Street, NYC has been extended to close Friday, September 1. Click HERE for gallery hours.
