Divided Divided By Carsten H�ller

For his major solo exhibition Divided Divided Carsten H�ller repeatedly divided the largest gallery of museum Boijmans van Beuningen into two.

In the museum�s largest gallery, with more than 1,500 m2 of floor space, H�ller has applied a simple arithmetical formula that repeatedly divides the space and the objects in it into two, creating an entity that heightens the visitor�s experience.

Carsten H�ller specializes in carefully conceived experiments that play with the physical experience and the messages transmitted to the brain. In the floating room, for instance, the subtly moving walls upset your sense of balance. The division formula is used in this Swinging Spiral too, but in a spiral form. It looks like a snail�s shell, but it is a room where you can walk and test your equilibrium. The Flicker Films are another example of this sort of experiment. Almost identical successive images of African dance groups are projected side by side. The brain fills in the rest of the images and creates a moving picture in the viewer�s head.

Are those real mushrooms growing from the museum floor? Where H�ller is involved, you can never be entirely sure. His background as a biologist is evident in the extraordinarily true to life replicas. They are compound mushrooms: half is a fly agaric (the familiar red ones with white spots); the other two fourths are different varieties. These Triple Giant Mushrooms vary in size from more than life-size to around one metre above the floor.

Birds are singing in the museum too. Seven canaries can be seen and heard in a huge mobile composed of seven birdcages. H�ller has often worked with birds in his art in the past. He has also made a new series of extraordinarily detailed paintings of birds.

During the Divided Divided exhibition anyone can spend an exclusive night in the museum. If you book a night in Carsten H�ller�s Revolving Hotel Room, this slowly rotating room in the centre of the museum will enable you to wander around the museum day and night�accompanied, of course, by a personal butler. As you would expect, luxury facilities are included, such as room service, a well-stocked mini bar, bathroom and toilet to ensure your comfortable stay in Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. Rates vary from �275 to �450 per night (for two people, including dinner and breakfast). This exclusive room is already booked up for the entire period.

The show runs until April 25.

http://www.boijmans.nlPosted by Femke de Wild | Photos courtesy of Attilio Maranzano