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For “Texte zur Kunst” Carsten Höller conceived “Somagabel (Soma Fork)”, a fork-like object which is related to his last solo show at Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin entitled “Soma”. For this occasion, the artist created a double-blind study by dividing the historical hall of the museum in two symmetrical parts. A footbridge ran through the space while compounds to the left and the right housed several reindeer. Caged Mice, flies and canaries functioned as further protagonists of the setting. The initial point for this tableau vivant lay in the quest of the origin of Soma, a mythical drink of Indogermanic peoples which is said to have an ecstatic effect due to a substance found in fly agarics. The reindeer in Höller’s installation were fed with these mushrooms they also eat in the wild. The question if their behaviour was actually affected by their psychoactive food had to be answered by the visitors of the show themselves although the scene looked like a laboratory. The shafts of the forks of Höller’s edition for “Texte zur Kunst” consist of antlers which fell off after the mating season of the animals and therefore differ with each piece. As the hallucinogen could be stored in the horns of the deer the owner of the work can participate in the experiment as well as the research of the consciousness-expanding promise of Soma.
