Carsten Höller

Carsten Höller creates what he calls Influential Environments, intended to create particular states of mind, like excitement and alteration, doubt and confusion, joy and fear.

Höller was born 1961 in Brussels, Belgium, to German parents. Currently, he lives and works in Stockholm, Sweden, and Biriwa, Ghana. Höller’s works have been shown internationally over the last two decades, with major installations and solo exhibitions including the 50th Biennale di Venezia, Venice (2003); One Day One Day, Färgfabriken, Stockholm (2003); 7th Biennale de Lyon, France (2003); Half Fiction, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston (2003); 7,8 Hz, Le Consortium, Dijon, France (2004); Une exposition à Marseille, Musée d’Art Contemporain, Marseille (2004); 51st Biennale di Venezia, Venice (2005); Test Site, Tate Modern, London (2006); Amusement Park, MASS MoCA, North Adams, Massachusetts (2006); Carrousel, Kunsthaus Bregenz, Austria (2008); The Double Club, Fondazione Prada, London (2008); 28th Bienal de São Paulo (2008); Double Slide, Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb (2009); 53rd Biennale di Venezia, Venice (2009); 8th Gwangju Biennale, South Korea (2010); Divided Divided, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Netherlands (2010); Soma, Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin (2010); Double Carousel with Zöllner Stripes, Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Rome (2011); Experience, New Museum, New York (2011); 11th Sharjah Biennial, United Arab Emirates (2013); LEBEN, Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, Vienna (2014); 8th Berlin Biennale (2014); 10th Gwangju Biennale, South Korea (2014); Golden Mirror Carousel, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia (2014–15); 56th Biennale di Venezia, Venice (2015); Decision, Hayward Gallery, London (2015); Doubt, Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan, Italy (2016); Video Retrospective with Two Light Machines, Mu.ZEE, Ostend, Belgium (2016); Y, Centro Botín, Santander, Spain (2017); Sunday, Museo Tamayo, Mexico City (2019) and Day, MAAT – Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology, Lisbon (2021). The Slide at the ArcelorMittal Orbit (2016), Höller’s commissioned addition to Anish Kapoor’s ArcelorMittal Orbit (2012), is permanently installed at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, London; and his site-specific Aventura Slide Tower (2018) can be experienced at the Aventura Mall, Florida. Höller’s memorial to Hans Künzi, Denkmal für Hans Künzi, (2017) is installed at SBB CFF FFS, Zürich, Switzerland, whilst Decimal Clock (White and White), (2018) at Centrale Supeléc is one of his largest light works to date. DAC Slide, (2020) another site specific public slide for the Dansk Arkitektur Center (DAC), is installed in Copenhagen, Denmark. The Double Club (2024), the third iteration of the work which was installed for four days in Los Angeles in conjunction with the exhibition Luna Luna: Forgotten Fantasy. Scala del dubbio/ Doubt Staircase (2024) is permanently installed at Palazzo Diedo – Berggruen Arts & Culture, Venice. In 2022 he opened Brutalisten a brutalist restaurant with a minimal amount of ingredients per dish, in Stockholm.