CARSTEN HÖLLER LEBEN

A catalogue / artist's book as puzzling and conceptually elaborate as the exhibition it accompanies. This fully circular publication has no beginning or end, allowing for multiple points of entry and unconventional ways of reading—both from left to right and vice versa, as well as upside down and right-side up—seeking to interrupt learned behaviors and soliciting the reader's active engagement. It complements the exhibition as it unfolds a play of doubling and symmetry that references the exhibits both formally and in terms of content. This intertwining is also evident in the central text around which the catalogue pivots: a conversation between Carsten Höller—who gained academic experience in phytopathology before embarking on his artistic career—and the taxidermist Alfred Höller during the festival “#WWTBD – What Would Thomas Bernhard Do” at Kunsthalle Wien in 2013.