Curated by Nathalie Ergino
Given that Robert Smithson believed “time becomes a place minus motion” in some sculpture, perhaps one could say of Carsten Höller’s work that place becomes motion minus time. At least that’s the mind bender suggested by his first retrospective, for which the artist lays out twelve sculptural installations in the first half of the museum galleries—then perfectly reflects that organization in the latter half by placing duplicates of the works in reverse order. Höller was inspired by the crystalline symmetry of the museum itself, but the idea seems appropriate enough for a science-minded artist whose phenomenological preoccupations always force the audience to recalibrate its senses. Retrospective as lifelong mirror stage: You might keep moving, but you’ll end up right where you started.
