A hot pink carousel just touched down in the Swiss Alps, thanks to Carsten Höller

At Kulm Hotel St. Moritz, the artist transformed a familiar childhood carousel into a meditation on time and being

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kulm hotel st. moritz carsten holler
Carsten Höller unveils Pink Mirror Carousel (2025) at Kulm Hotel St. Moritz
(Image credit: Courtesy of the artist and Kulm Hotel St. Moritz)

This winter, the snow-covered surroundings of Kulm Hotel St. Moritz get a jolt of colour thanks to a playful installation by German-Belgian artist Carsten Höller – a hot pink carousel. The installation is impossible to miss with its pink-tinged mirrored panels gleaming against the all-white alpine landscape.

kulm hotel st. moritz carsten holler

(Image credit: Courtesy of the artist and Kulm Hotel St. Moritz)

Installed on the hotel’s ice rink, opposite the Kulm Country Club, Pink Mirror Carousel masquerades as a simple amusement ride. In reality, science-loving Höller has reengineered the nostalgic artefact into something more exacting. Unlike a conventional ride, which completes a rotation in seconds, this version is calibrated to turn once every two minutes, operating as a precise clock. Its upper section rotates counterclockwise, while the middle turns in the opposite direction. The point is not speed but contemplation: riders become part of the sculpture, simultaneously reflecting and reflected.

kulm hotel st. moritz carsten holler

Carsten Höller

(Image credit: Courtesy of the artist and Kulm Hotel St. Moritz)

Carousels are a recurring theme throughout Höller's practice (second only to mushrooms) and function as ‘confusion machines’ that disrupt our sense of time.

‘This is a sculpture with people inside, animating the inanimate, the mechanical, the lifeless rotation, with the realness of human bodies being transported through their own biological time,' the artist explains. 'A dream machine that may disappoint children expecting to be whirled around, while rewarding those reflecting on the essence of being.'

The work follows the opening of his large-scale artwork Stockholm Slides (2025) at Moderna Museet in the Swedish capital where Höller lives and also runs Brutalisten, his one-ingredient, ‘brutalist’ restaurant.

Kulm Hotel St. Moritz is located at Via Veglia 18, 7500 St. Moritz, Switzerland

Sofia de la Cruz
Travel Editor

Sofia de la Cruz is the Travel Editor at Wallpaper*. A self-declared flâneuse, she feels most inspired when taking the role of a cultural observer – chronicling the essence of cities and remote corners through their nuances, rituals, and people. Her work lives at the intersection of art, design, and culture, often shaped by conversations with the photographers who capture these worlds through their lens.