Carsten Höller – Doubt

Mostra personale di Carsten Höller, artista tedesco tra i più riconosciuti a livello internazionale per la sua approfondita riflessione sulla natura umana.

Comunicato stampa

Mercoledì 6 aprile 2016, alle ore 19, Pirelli HangarBicocca inaugura “Doubt”, la mostra personale di Carsten Höller, artista tedesco tra i più riconosciuti a livello internazionale per la sua approfondita riflessione sulla natura umana. La pratica di Höller è fondata sulla ricerca di nuovi modi di abitare il mondo in cui viviamo e prevede il coinvolgimento diretto del pubblico con l’opera d’arte. Il suo lavoro suscita diversi stati d’animo nel visitatore: gioia, euforia, allucinazioni e, appunto, “dubbi” dando vita a nuove possibili interpretazioni del reale. La mostra, a cura di Vicente Todolí, si espande attraverso due percorsi speculari e paralleli, che richiedono la partecipazione sensoriale del pubblico. Sono i visitatori a poter scegliere come affrontare la mostra e quale percorso intraprendere.
Per Carsten Höller la scelta, infatti, è insita nell’opera d’arte e sin dall’inizio della mostra l’installazione Y (2003), formata da numerose lampadine che si accendono a intermittenza, pone il dubbio sulla direzione da scegliere.
“Doubt” presenta oltre venti opere, sia storiche che nuove produzioni, collocate sull’asse centrale dello spazio, in modo da creare un muro divisorio che permette di vedere le opere solo a metà. Il pubblico deve ricordarle così fino al momento in cui incontra l’altra metà, percorrendo il lato opposto. Grandi installazioni, video e fotografie giocano con le coordinate spaziali e temporali del luogo espositivo, sviluppando un viaggio tra simmetria, duplicazione e ribaltamento.
Il percorso espositivo alterna lavori che rimandano a esperimenti ottici – tra cui Upside-Down Goggles (1994 – in corso), con i quali l’artista invita il pubblico a vedere il mondo capovolto – a quelli legati a una dimensione ludica – come Two Flying Machines (2015), con le quali si può sperimentare la sensazione del volo o Double Carousel (2011), una giostra per adulti che provoca sentimenti di euforia e stupore.

La mostra include anche Two Roaming Beds (Grey) (2015), formata da due letti che vagano ininterrottamente nello spazio, e Yellow/Orange Double Sphere (2016), un dispositivo luminoso sospeso composto da due sfere concentriche e lampeggianti, che interagisce con l’opera di Philippe Parreno Marquee (2015), parte della mostra “Hypothesis” precedentemente ospitata in Pirelli HangarBicocca.

Formatosi come fitopatologista, Carsten Höller (Bruxelles, 1961. Vive e lavora a Stoccolma, Svezia, e Biriwa, Ghana) ha un dottorato in scienza dell’agricoltura, ed è specializzato in ecologia chimica. A partire dai primi anni Novanta Höller abbandona la carriera da scienziato per dedicarsi all’arte. Negli ultimi vent’anni ha esposto il suo lavoro in numerose istituzioni internazionali: Hayward Gallery – Southbank Centre, Londra (2015); Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, Vienna (2014); New Museum, New York (2011); Hamburger Bahnhof Museum für Gegenwart, Berlino (2011); P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, New York (2006); ICA, Boston (2003); Fondazione Prada, Milano (2000).. Nel 2006, ha presentato l’installazione Test Site all’interno del progetto “The Unilever Series” della Turbine Hall in Tate Modern. Ha partecipato inoltre a importanti rassegne d’arte internazionali tra cui quattro edizioni della Biennale di Venezia (2015, 2009, 2005, 2003).

In mostra sono presenti alcune opere coprodotte con Hayward Gallery – Southbank Centre di Londra. L’esposizione si avvale inoltre del supporto tecnico di INELCOM.

La mostra “Doubt” è accompagnata da un catalogo curato da Vicente Todolí che propone un’estensiva documentazione fotografica dell’esposizione e una doppia analisi delle opere in mostra.

The exhibition “Doubt” divides the space at Pirelli HangarBicocca into two halves, which can be accessed through two different entrances. Visitors have to decide for a color, green or yellow, in order to enter. They will find the artworks aligned along the middle axis of the space. This alignment of works forms a central dividing wall, where visitors will see/experience only half of a given work, and have to remember the half they have seen until they encounter the other half on the other side.

More than twenty large-scale works, including Decision Corridors, Double Zöllner Wall, Flying Mushrooms, Double Neon Elevator, Two Flying Machines, Light Corridor and Two Roaming Beds will be exhibited.

On April 7, 2016, Pirelli HangarBicocca will open “Doubt,” a solo exhibition by Carsten Höller. The German artist (b. 1961 in Brussels, based in Stockholm, Sweden and Biriwa, Ghana) has risen to the fore of the international scene for his penetrating inquiry into the nature of human experience. Directly engaging the viewer in his art, Höller’s practice revolves around the search for new ways of inhabiting our world. His work summons upon different states of mind: joy, illusion, and of course, “doubt,” which opens the door to new ways of perceiving reality. The show, curated by Vicente Todolí, presents a rich selection of works both existent and new, including large-scale installations, videos and photographs, and plays with the spatial and temporal coordinates of the exhibition venue, charting a course between symmetry, duplication and reversal.

“Doubt” unfolds along twinned, parallel paths that foreground the potential which lies in the moment of decision-making, demanding sensory participation and perceptual focus on part of the viewers. For only the visitors themselves can choose how to approach the exhibition and which path to take.

In Carsten Höller’s view, choice is inherent to the work of art, and at the very beginning of the exhibition, the installation Y (2003), which is lined with numerous flashing light bulbs and can be walked through in its entirety, raises the question of which way to go. This choice is what determines the shape of “Doubt” both as an individual experience, based on the sensations and memories of each visitor in relation to the space, and as a collective one that allows visitors to observe other people as they interact with the works. As the artist says, “You might have the feeling that you are missing out on something because there is always another possibility, or there is always another way to do it.”

Just after Y, Divisions Wall (2016) comprises two partitions made up of colored sections, each of which halves both the dimensions and the intensity of tone found in the one before. This echoes the mathematical concept of the asymptote, according to which a curve can only approach a straight line by infinite degrees. The contrast between boundary and extension on which this work is based paves the way for the installation Decision Corridors (2015): two mirror-image steel structures, set at different levels, which lead visitors along a dark, maze-like path, where they may lose their sense of orientation and time.

The exhibition layout alternates works that draw on optical experiments—like Double Zöllner Wall (2016), whose illusory pattern characterizes the central part of the show, and Upside-Down Goggles (1994 – ongoing), in which the artist invites visitors to see the world bottom-up—with others that are as playful in nature, like Flying Mushrooms (2015), a mobile structure that allows viewers to interact with giant toadstools, and Two Flying Machines (2015), in which visitors can experience the sensation of flight. The exhibition also invites us to reconsider the meaning of play and participation through Double Carousel (2011), a merry-go-round for adults that gives a sense of euphoria and amazement, while Two Roaming Beds (Grey) (2015), made up of two beds that drift endlessly through the space, suggests a state of meditation.
Yellow/Orange Double Sphere (2016), a hanging light-based work composed of two concentric, flickering colored spheres, one inside the other, interacts with Marquee (2015), a piece by Philippe Parreno from the exhibition previously on view at Pirelli HangarBicocca, “Hypothesis,” which runs through February 14, 2016. This overlap between the two exhibitions suggests an idea of collaboration linked to the practice of both artists, who since the 1990s have explored the concepts of participation and authorship.

The exhibition “Doubt” is accompanied by a catalogue, edited by Vicente Todolí, that includes extensive photographic documentation of the show and a double analysis of the works on view.

Acknowledgements
The exhibition includes several works co-produced with Hayward Gallery - Southbank Centre in London, and relies on the technical support of INELCOM.

About the artist
Having originally been trained as a phytopathologist, Carsten Höller holds a doctorate in agricultural science with a specialization in chemical ecology. In the early 1990s, Höller abandoned his scientific career to devote himself to art. Over the last twenty years he has shown his work in many international art institutions, such as: Hayward Gallery - Southbank Centre, London (2015); Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, Vienna (2014); New Museum, New York (2011); Hamburger Bahnhof Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin (2011); ICA, Boston (2003); Fondazione Prada, Milan (2000). In 2006, he presented the installation Test Site as part of “The Unilever Series” at Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall. He has also participated in major international art festivals, including four editions of the Venice Biennale (2015, 2009, 2005, 2003).

The exhibition program at Pirelli HangarBicocca
“Doubt” is part of the exhibition program conceived by Vicente Todolí for Pirelli HangarBicocca. The show by Carsten Höller is presented in the Navate parallel to the project XXI Esposizione Internazionale della Triennale di Milano 21st Century: Design After Design, housed in the Shed (April 2 – September 12, 2016). In the Navate, the Pirelli HangarBicocca calendar will continue with planned exhibitions by Kishio Suga (September 2016 – January 2017), Miroslaw Balka (March – July 2017), Lucio Fontana (September 2017 – January 2018), Matt Mullican (February – July 2018). The Shed space will be featuring exhibitions by Laure Prouvost (October 2016 – February 2017), and Maria Nordman (April – September 2017).

Pirelli HangarBicocca
Pirelli HangarBicocca is a cultural institution funded by Pirelli and dedicated to the creation and promotion of contemporary art. With a rich and intense calendar of events, Pirelli HangarBicocca presents solo exhibitions by leading international artists who stand out for the experimental nature of their work, as well as a cultural program, and all of its activities are open to the public free of charge.