Carsten Höller's Artistic Play: A Documentary Journey with a Giant Polaroid
Artist Carsten Höller is the subject of a new film, despite his initial reservations. Over an eighteen-month period, the documentary crew trailed him from Venice to London, Arles, and the Fondation Beyeler near Basel. Notable figures such as Hans Ulrich Obrist, Jürgen Teller, Maja Hoffmann, India Mahdavi, and Bas Smets joined him, alongside an unusual companion: the colossal Polaroid 20x24, recognized as the world's largest instant camera.
This twenty-minute documentary, presented by The Polaroid Foundation as part of 'The 20x24 Project,' offers an engaging and humorous look into Höller's artistic domain through the interactive experiences detailed in his 'Book of Games.' Participants engage in simple yet profound experiments, such as hair-pulling, walking, posing, and other small acts. Höller's primary interest lies in observing the shifts that occur once individuals commit to these playful encounters. The massive Polaroid 20x24 plays a central role, its large-format photographs transforming the act of instant photography into a significant event. The project amasses a collection of portraits and moving images, capturing specific instances from Höller’s experiments on a scale that defies the typical, handheld instant photo.
The journey eventually delves into more personal territory, as Höller welcomes the crew to his Stockholm home, where an aviary housing approximately seventy birds resides. They also visit the rooftop of Moderna Museet and Brutalisten, his concept restaurant focused on dishes created from a single core ingredient. The group's adventures further lead them to the Camargue region of France for what the film refers to as a 'sad bird-watching' excursion. Höller has long used games to disrupt conventional behaviors and perceptions, and his 2024 publication, 'Book of Games,' compiles these experiments into accessible instructions. These activities range from social and psychological to deliberately whimsical, aiming to push participants towards extreme states of joy or fear by removing the neutral middle ground. Through these games, traditional distinctions between portraits, interviews, experiments, and jokes blur, with each photograph serving as proof of an event, and the game itself creating the environment for that event to unfold. Despite his initial reluctance, the accumulating footage ultimately paints a revealing portrait of Höller himself—his friends, his birds, his enduring curiosities, and the elaborate scenarios he continually devises to witness human reactions.
This documentary is a profound exploration of human interaction and perception through the lens of artistic play. By observing people's willingness to engage in simple yet unconventional games, it highlights the transformative power of art to uncover deeper truths about ourselves and our environment. Höller's work encourages us to step outside our comfort zones, embrace vulnerability, and find joy and insight in unexpected places, fostering a richer understanding of human nature and our collective experience.