Carsten Höller Installed A Giant Playground Inside Frieze London

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The Frieze London art fair has rolled into Regent's Park for its annual showcase, bringing with it swaths of contemporary art, collectors, curious onlookers, and art enthusiasts. Among the blue-chip price tags, chin-stroking, and ogling is a children's playground designed by experimental Belgian artist Carsten Höller.

Höller, who has previously performed experiments on New Museum patrons, has exhibited in some of the world's most presitgious museums and and galleries. His work often has a lighthearted, playful component, like the 100-foot slide tower he built in Germany, and the series of slides which featured in the Tate Modern's Turbine Hall as Test Site.

For the Gagosian Gallery’s stand at Frieze, Höller has created an installation called Gartenkinder, which Google translates as German for "garden for children." The installation turns the booth into a huge playground that features giant dice that kids can crawl through, an incredibly realistic octopus toy, a "Perplexity Ball" which bounces in random directions, and a giant mushroom that rocks from side-to-side, like a roly-poly toy. While mushrooms have featured in Höller's work before, like in his piece Giant Triple Mushrooms, they've never been this interactive.

The exibition's name is spelled out in large Scrabble pieces, and the primary colors of the space—blue, red, green, and yellow—continue the sculpture's kindergarten theme. Explains the press release, "The installation emphasises the importance of play," which is exactly what we're telling our bosses (as if we needed any more excuses to go visit Frieze London). Check out some images of Gartenkinder below:

Unfortunately, Gagosian won't say just how much Gartenkinder costs to buy, in case you wanted to install it in your own garden… For the kids, of course.

Related:

This Slide Sculpture Is 100 Feet Of Vertical "Delight And Madness"

Carsten Höller Experiments On Visitors At The New Museum

The Healing Power Of Interactive Art (And Giant Furniture)