Carsten Höller: With

True to a scientific attitude, for his fifth exhibition in the spaces of the gallery Air de Paris, the Belgian artist collaborates with Philippe Parreno, François Roche and Attilio Maranzano, among others.

The principle of collaboration is an extremely delicate device in artistic creation. Even more so when the artist is as sensitive and out of step with contemporary practices as Carsten Höller is. Yet he decided to dedicate his latest solo show to this subject – perhaps because it's his fifth exhibition in the spaces of the gallery Air de Paris, and the place itself is one of the few in the world to remain a workshop and not just a showcase. The quality of these invitations to collaborate, beyond all utilitarian logic, is the nexus we need to pay attention to. Höller eliminates narcissism, avoids the gesture and, more probably, gets rid of the tic of working with two hands. With other colleagues, this can lead to split personalities, or even schizophrenic production.

True to the scientific attitude we associate with him, Höller turned to different fields of specific interest: one architect (François Roche), one photographer (Attilio Maranzano), one perfumer (Ben Gorham), one model maker (Rigobert Nimi) and, rounding out the list, one taxidermist (Yves Gaumetou). The show opens with an homage to the obsession for the paradox of doubles. On the floor in the first room is the model of a double carousel made in aluminium. It joins the already wide selection of splendid carousels that Höller has been making for quite some time. This one is called Top Mode Africa. It will feature on the set of the movie Fara Fara, and has been devised to host a singing contest between two Congolese music stars. The vision is stereoscopic; the model looks like a relic of the future perfect.

Continuing on our way, we come across the pretty pictures of synchronised videos, which introduce us to the re-activation of some of Höller's old work: Tokyo Twins (2005), New York Twins (2011) and Paris Twins (2001), now filmed live in a mirrored performance. Intent on denial, the twins are exchanging the contradictory phrase: "I Always Say The Opposite Of What You Say", and the spectator becomes a mute witness trying to find impossible discrepancies.

The very elegant walnut-wood box and display case of Insensatus Vol. 1 Fig. 1 (2013) on show in another room would seem to be simply a product manufactured by the beauty industry. Instead, it is the result of Höller's collaboration with Ben Gorham, the true outsider here, an artist on loan from the perfumery business. Four tubes of toothpaste each contain different substances that induce four types of dreams: feminine, masculine or infantile, plus a neutral paste that is added to the others to either attenuate or intensify the effect.

Carsten Höller's synaesthetic operation continues in the tough test he puts to our visual memory. The wonderful Memory Game (2012) created with Attilio Maranzano is a curious example of this, practically impossible to play. On a table, a set of 62 back-and-front cards reproduces the series of amazing photographs of theme parks that is hanging on the walls. One side shows the original photo; the other has the same photo, only with the colours separated by Höller. Every day, one of them is taken away at random, with the aim of changing the display.

In the last room, filled with a thick blanket of white fog, two projects still under construction give a glimpse of how the artist's sensitivity is redesigning his vision of the world. The all-white Maison-Oreille is the model of a listening station created in collaboration with Philippe Parreno to perceive all types of sound, from the hum of nature to the passing of airplanes at high altitudes. The other piece, Hypothèse de Grue, was developed with the architect François Roche as an iconoclastic structure that has something to do with moods. It looks like an industrial dragon ready to spew mist impregnated with neurostimulating substances.

And here we are, smack in the middle of Höller's universe. It is guarded by a new animal that has made its entrance into his bestiary populated by fantastic creatures like cuddly acid-yellow rhinoceroses and epoxy-resin crocodiles. In the gallery's display case, a big orange snake made with Yves Gaumetou is trying to digest something large. It gives a strange impression of heaviness, perhaps connected to the present, but Höller throws us the keys to an expedition to much lighter lands, permeated with pleasant mind-altering conditions.

Until 13 July
Carsten Höller. With
Air de Paris
32 Rue Louise Weiss, Paris

Carsten Höller: With

True to a scientific attitude, for his fifth exhibition in the spaces of the gallery Air de Paris, the Belgian artist collaborates with Philippe Parreno, François Roche and Attilio Maranzano, among others.

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