carsten holler's pink mirrored carousel slows time on the ice rink of the kulm hotel st. moritz

"Carsten Höller installs Pink Mirror Carousel on the ice rink of the Kulm Hotel St. Moritz this winter, introducing a slowed, reflective amusement structure to the Alpine resort. Clad in pink mirrored panels and precisely calibrated to complete a full rotation every two minutes, the work takes a familiar fairground structure and transforms it into an immersive sculptural environment that folds time, movement, and spectatorship into a disorienting experience set against the Engadin landscape."

"Installed outdoors on the hotel's ice rink, Pink Mirror Carousel continues Höller's long-standing engagement with amusement rides as what he calls 'confusion machines.' Rather than delivering speed or thrill, the carousel deliberately slows the body down. Its rotation becomes almost meditative, encouraging riders to register duration, repetition, and anticipation as material conditions. The structure is composed of twelve identical mirrored segments arranged as a dodecagon, reflecting skaters, riders, the surrounding mountains, and the carousel itself in shifting fragments."

"While earlier carousel works by Höller have required up to twenty-four hours for a single turn, the St. Moritz installation completes its cycle in exactly two minutes. This double minute references the carousel's counter-rotating elements, with the top turning counter-clockwise and the middle section rotating clockwise. The result is a subtle but persistent sense of misalignment, where mechanical precision and bodily perception never fully sync."

Pink Mirror Carousel sits on the Kulm Hotel St. Moritz ice rink clad in pink mirrored panels and completes a full rotation every two minutes. The structure comprises twelve identical mirrored segments arranged as a dodecagon that fragment and reflect skaters, riders, mountains, and the carousel itself. The installation intentionally slows bodily motion, encouraging awareness of duration, repetition, and anticipation as material conditions. Counter-rotating elements—top turning counter-clockwise while the middle rotates clockwise—create persistent misalignment between mechanical precision and bodily perception. Music curated by the hotel's directeur d'ambiance, Arman Naféei, accompanies the work.

Read at designboom | architecture & design magazine