Carsten Höller's Silver Slides Become a Permanent Fixture in Mexico City
A four-slide installation by Carsten Höller has opened permanently at Arte Abierto Polanco, spiraling through an upscale Mexico City mall and its surrounding public spaces.
Carsten Höller's spiraling silver slides have found a permanent home in Mexico City. The installation, titled Mexico City Slides (2026), places four spiral slides at Arte Abierto Polanco, embedded within the Antara open-air shopping complex that combines retail, dining, entertainment, offices and public space.
Scale and siting
The work spans heights of 12 to 38 metres and lengths of 31 to 90 metres. It was commissioned by Arte Abierto and Sordo Madaleno Arquitectos and is visible from Antara's gardens, plazas and pedestrian promenade, threading the artwork through the architecture of the site rather than isolating it.
The four slides are open to the public and let four people ride simultaneously from separate entrances, including family-style restaurants, the Google offices, the Rosewood Hotel and the Arte Abierto Art Space. All four end at a single exit.
The commission threads a major contemporary artwork through a working commercial and hospitality complex, with entrances at offices, a hotel and an art space.
An "equalizer" in transit
Höller described the intent behind the piece as an "equalizer" and, for participants and viewers, a "voluptuous panic upon an otherwise lucid mind." In a 2015 interview with The Guardian, he said it is "impossible to travel down a slide without smiling."
A franchise two decades in the making
The Mexico City work belongs to a series Höller began in 1998 and continues to develop. Earlier variations have appeared at major cultural institutions: Test Site (2006) at Tate Modern in London, Victoria Slide (2011) at the New Museum in New York, Vitra Slide Tower (2014) at the Vitra Campus in Weil am Rhein, Florence Experiment Slides (2018) at Palazzo Strozzi in Florence, and DAC Slide (2020) at the Danish Architecture Centre in Copenhagen.
That the newest iteration sits in a mall and hotel complex, with riders entering from offices and restaurants, marks a shift in context for a body of work previously staged largely at museums and cultural venues.
