Various forms of dispersion run through the work of Carsten Höller like a red thread, always questioning the service value of art. He is not interested in producing self-contained objects (or in the case of the Standard an hermetically sealed page) but rather in provoking a direct reaction from the reader. Höller's manifesto for love is simultaneously a statement against the obligation towards genetic reproduction. At the beginning of the century revolutionary events in physics changed our picture of the world, at the end of the century fundamental changes in the field of microbiology are taking place which are influencing other disciplines. We are experiencing a change from a physical, mechanistic paradigm to a microbiological paradigm. Parallel to all this, huge changes are taking place in aesthetics which is increasingly coming into contact with interdisciplinary neurology. Carsten Höller's work is a part of these fundamental transitions.
(Hans-Ulrich Obrist)
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