Doppelpilzvitrine (24 Doppelpilze)

In Doppelpilzvitrine (24 Doppelpilze) Carsten Holler once more plays with his role as a scientist and artist. Polyurethane models of 24 mushrooms are exhibited in a glass showcase. It is a kind of mock genetic experiment in which the artist creates 24 pairs, in which various species are combined with amanita. This artificial experimentation is performed with method and precision: each double mushroom stands on a round glass base and has its own label; one half is always amanita and the other half is a different species. Holler observes systematic rules and repetitive structures that bewilder the viewer: scientific truth and imagination are confused in a work with traits of Surrealism and Pop art. In front of the 24 prototypes, the viewer cannot help wondering and imagining the characteristics of each one, whether it has beneficial, curative or palliative properties, or devastating and deadly effects. Imagination could be allowed to wander even further, to the mushrooms in Alice in Wonderland, which shrunk and enlarged things out of all proportion. Nevertheless, if imagination can have dangerous effects like a poisonous mushroom, Holler places it behind glass, to allow contemplation but keep its uncontrollable effects at a distance. This produces an increase in desire, and in human curiosity towards the mystery of that which is seen but not fully understood.