Take a Spin on the 'Pink Mirror Carousel'

Carsten Höller's latest installation invites viewers to sit down and take a spin—literally. Part experiential art, part plain fun, Pink Mirror Carousel joins the artist's fantastical body of work. With Mirror Carousel (2005), Amusement Park (2006), and Double Carousel with Zöllner Stripes (2011), Carsten explores spectacle, delight, deception, and time through reinterpretations of amusement park rides. The latest interpretation stands against an alpine backdrop at the Kulm Hotel St. Moritz in the Engadin valley of Switzerland.

Carsten says his work engages through an "influential environment," and it's not hard to see the influence this vibrant, large-scale outdoor piece has on the snowy resort town. The soft-pink mirrored carousel is installed on Kulm Hotel's ice rink, which means skaters glide right by the altered amusement park ride. Music completes the winter wonderland scene, with a curated selection by Kulm Hotel’s Directeur d’Ambiance Arman Naféei playing.

The carousel moves clockwise at a significantly slower speed than a typical ride. A full rotation takes two minutes. After traversing the ice rink, visitors can hop aboard and take in the scenery in slow motion. Carsten invites visitors to meditate on movement and stillness, play and reflection—while becoming part of the art.

“This is a sculpture with people inside, animating the inanimate, the mechanical, the lifeless rotation with the realness of human bodies being transported through their own biological time," Baldo Hauser (a pseudonym for Carsten) said in a press release. "A dream machine that may disappoint children expecting to be whirled around, while rewarding those reflecting on the essence of being.”

—Dalene Rovenstine