Carsten Holler
dal 27/10/2010 al 7/1/2011
Segnalato da
27/10/2010
Carsten Holler
Ernst Schering Foundation, Berlin
Reindeer in a Forest of Zoellner Stripes. The artist developed his new work Rentier rot-grun (Reindeer red-green) for the Foundation, continuing his artistic exploration of the phi-phenomenon, which he began in 2001. The phi-phenomenon refers to the perception of a non-existent movement, which is generated in the eye by rapidly switching on and off the light in two fixed light sources. The viewer sees a third point between the two fixed light points, which appears to jump between the two poles.
Carsten Höller’s exhibition “Rentier im Zöllnerstreifenwald,” on display at the Project Space
of the Ernst Schering Foundation, is a cooperation with the Berlin National Gallery. In the
context of his extensive solo exhibition, SOMA, at the National Gallery’s Hamburger Bahnhof
– Museum for Contemporary Art, Berlin, the artist developed his new work Rentier rot-grün
(Reindeer red-green) for the Ernst Schering Foundation, continuing his artistic exploration of
the phi-phenomenon, which he began in 2001.
The phi-phenomenon was first described by Gestalt psychologist Max Wertheimer in 1912. It
refers to the perception of a non-existent movement, which is generated in the eye by
rapidly switching on and off the light in two fixed light sources. The viewer sees a third point
between the two fixed light points, which appears to jump between the two poles. Carsten
Höller has examined this phenomenon in a number of works, originally in 1994 in his work
Phi Phenomenon, and most recently in 2007 in Phi TV.
For the exhibition at the Ernst Schering Foundation Höller created a reindeer consisting of
red and green light bulbs that switch on and off in the manner of the phi-phenomenon, thus
exposing the viewer to a double illusion: the flickering reindeer stands in a room painted
with Zöllner Stripes which run parallel but at the same time seem to converge or diverge.
The viewers become testers of their own destabilization; they experience how unstable
between-stages affect their own condition and space-perception. At the same time, the
workings behind the illusion are questioned. How can the lights be perceived to jump
between two poles of light when the source to which the lights jump has not yet been
switched on? Why do the Zöllner Stripes appear to converge?
After the exhibition closes, the Ernst Schering Foundation will donate the work Rentier rot-
grün as a gift to the collection of the National Gallery Berlin. The Foundation also supports
the more extensive presentation of Carsten Höller’s work at the Hamburger Bahnhof. As part
of its focus on “artistic research,” the Ernst Schering Foundation thus seeks to honour an
artist who is one of the most important international artists working at the interface with
science and who already in the early 1990s began to realize the experiment as a process in
his artistic works.
Carsten Höller
Carsten Höller lives and works in Stockholm. He had recent solo exhibitions at the Museum
Boijmans Van Beuningen, the Kunsthaus Bregenz, The National Gallery of Canada, the Tate
Modern, London, and at MASS MoCA, North Adams, and has participated several times in
the Venice, Lyon and Gwangju biennials. His work has been shown at the Solomon R.
Guggenheim Museum in New York, and at the Centre Pompidou in Paris. In 2008, Höller, in
collaboration with the Fondazione Prada, realized his seminal The Double Club in London’s
Islington neighbourhood. As part of ArtePollino un altro Sud in 2009, he exhibited the
carousel installation RB Ride on a hilltop in the Parco Nazionale del Pollino in southern Italy.
From November 5, 2010 to February 6, 2011, the Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum for
Contemporary Art, Berlin, shows Carsten Höller’s solo exhibition SOMA. In search of
fulfilment, Höller explores the myth of Soma, a salutary potion promising knowledge,
immortality, and access to the sphere of the divine.
Opening: Thursday, November 4, 2010, at 8 p.m.
The exhibition is organized by the Berlin State Museums and made possible with support
from the Friends of the National Gallery and in cooperation with the Ernst Schering
Foundation.
Image: Carsten Höller: Bambi, 2006. Glühlampen, digitale Steuerung, Kunststoff-Fassungen, Kabel, geschweißter Stahldraht
70 x 30 x 70 centimeters. Photo: Marc Domage. Courtesy the artist and Air de Paris
Press contact for the exhibition “Rentier im Zöllnerstreifenwald” at the Ernst Schering Foundation:
artpress – Ute Weingarten Phone: +49-(0)30-21 961843 Email: artpress@uteweingarten.de
Opening: Thursday, October 28, 2010, at 7 p.m.
Ernst Schering Foundation
Unter den Linden 32-34 - 10117 Berlin
Opening hours: Monday to Saturday: 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.
Admission is free.