The Carsten Höller Episode: Surreal Games and Giant Polaroid

The Polaroid Foundation has released a 20-minute documentary titled The Carsten Höller Episode as part of The 20x24 Project, offering a glimpse into the whimsical world of artist Carsten Höller. The film captures various small experiments and games derived from his Book of Games, featuring simple rules like pulling hair, walking, or posing, and observes how participants react when they agree to take part.

The massive instant camera accompanied Höller through a familiar art-world circuit. Games were conducted at Palazzo Diedo in Venice, the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, Rencontres d'Arles, and Fondation Beyeler in Riehen, Switzerland. Notable figures from the art community such as Obrist, Teller, Hoffmann, artist and musician Casey Spooner, Mahdavi, and Smets made appearances throughout the journey.

At the core of the project is the gigantic Polaroid 20x24 camera, which transforms the usual immediacy of an instant photo into a significant event. The project produces a growing collection of large-scale portraits alongside moving image footage, freezing individual moments from Höller's experiments at an extraordinary scale.

Stock photo for illustration only, not from the actual event

The journey eventually takes a more personal turn as the crew visits Höller's home in Stockholm, where around seventy birds reside in his aviary, before heading to the roof of Moderna Museet and Brutalisten, the concept restaurant he founded centered around dishes prepared from a single principal ingredient. The group also ventures into the Camargue in France for a bird-watching excursion.