Carsten Höller

Carsten Höller (b. 1961, Brussels) is a German artist whose practice draws on his scientific training to explore perception, human behavior, and altered states of consciousness. Trained as an agricultural scientist and former research entomologist, Höller has developed a body of work that invites viewers to question their experience of reality through situations that oscillate between experiment, play, and uncertainty.

Since the early 1990s, he has created immersive installations that provoke states of disorientation, exhilaration, and doubt. His celebrated slides, carousels, mirrored environments, sensory devices, and participatory experiments transform spectators into active participants, challenging conventional distinctions between observation and experience. Central to his practice is the notion of the artwork as a catalyst for alternative ways of perceiving and understanding the world.

Höller has maintained a longstanding interest in the social and psychological dimensions of human interaction. Projects such as The Double Club (2008–09), which brought Congolese and Western cultures into dialogue, and Revolving Hotel Room (2008–09), a fully functioning hotel room installed within the Guggenheim Museum, exemplify his reconfiguration of everyday environments into spaces of experimentation. His scientific background also informs numerous works involving animals, plants, and psychotropic mushrooms, recurring subjects through which he investigates the boundaries between nature, culture, and consciousness.

Often associated with the artists who redefined participation and experience in the 1990s, including Pierre Huyghe, Rirkrit Tiravanija, and Andrea Zittel, Höller has developed one of the most distinctive practices of his generation. His work has been the subject of major exhibitions at Tate Modern, London; the New Museum, New York; Fondazione Prada, Milan; Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan; Hayward Gallery, London; and MAAT, Lisbon, among many others. His works are held in major international collections, including the Centre Pompidou, Paris; Tate, London; Fondazione Prada, Milan; and LUMA Foundation, Arles. He has participated in numerous international biennials, including Venice, São Paulo, Berlin, Lyon, Gwangju, and Sharjah.