English
Belgian artist Carsten Höller has permanently installed his iconic spiraling silver slides at Arte Abierto Polanco in Mexico City. The large-scale work joins a growing global series of slide installations that Höller first began in 1998.
Mexico City Slides: A Permanent Public Installation
The installation, titled Mexico City Slides (2026), features four giant spiral slides built into Antara, an upscale open-air shopping mall in the Polanco district. Antara combines retail, dining, entertainment, offices and public space. Arte Abierto and Sordo Madaleno Arquitectos jointly commissioned the work.
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The slides are visible from Antara’s gardens, plazas and pedestrian promenade. They range from 39 to 125 feet in height and from 102 to 295 feet in length. All four slides end at a shared exit point, regardless of where riders begin.
Open to the Public from Multiple Entry Points
Each slide connects to a different part of the complex. Riders can enter from family-style restaurants, the Google offices, the Rosewood Hotel and the Arte Abierto Art Space. Up to four people can ride simultaneously across the four slides.
Höller described the installation as an “equalizer.” He also called it a “voluptuous panic upon an otherwise lucid mind” for both participants and viewers. In 2015, he told The Guardian that it is “impossible to travel down a slide without smiling.”
Part of a Long-Running Global Series
The Mexico City Slides installation continues a work-in-progress franchise Höller launched in 1998. Over the years, variations of the slides have appeared at major cultural venues around the world. These include Test Site (2006) at Tate Modern in London and Victoria Slide (2011) at the New Museum in New York.
Further installations followed at the Vitra Campus in Weil am Rhein with Vitra Slide Tower (2014), at Palazzo Strozzi in Florence with Florence Experiment Slides (2018), and at the Danish Architecture Centre in Copenhagen with DAC Slide (2020). The Mexico City edition is the first to become a permanent fixture within a commercial and public urban space of this scale.
