Published by Kunsthaus Bregenz in 2008, “Carrousel” documents Carsten Höller’s immersive transformation of museum architecture into a laboratory of perceptual disruption. The exhibition centered on five interrelated works, most notably the colossal “R B Ride,” a fairground carousel modified to rotate at a meditative, nearly imperceptible speed. This volume explores how Höller utilizes amusement park motifs to “irritate perception,” challenging the viewer’s habitual experience of time and motion. Through a combination of scholarly text by Carl Roitmeister and rich visual documentation, the book examines the carousel not as a machine for diversion, but as a “time-measuring device” that intersects with biological time. The publication includes a DVD documenting the installation’s kinetic and stroboscopic environments, capturing the unique “labyrinth of seduction and doubt” that defines Höller’s participatory art.
