Test Site is a large series of slides which are impressive sculptures by sculptor Carsten Holler. You don't need to slide down the sculpture to appreciate it, the visual of seeing people slide down the 'inner spectacle', puts the viewer into a state of simultaneous delight and anxiety. Of course many wonder whether it is really art. But art, Holler says is changing its character, like it or not. In the 1970s, projects such as Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty were of minority interest. In London, Holler says, "every newspaper wrote about Test Site, and every taxi driver knew about the slides. British popular culture embraces something like this in a way other countries don't."
So the Turbine Hall has become a playground. In a more serious note, the artist says "I was also dealing with the space, all those grids and straight lines. Putting the slides there was an artistic, even poetic intervention. The spirals relate to natural growth and form. No one mentioned this. I wanted to make the people part of the work, but you didn't have to use the slides. Standing and watching could be like looking at a painting by Hieronymous Bosch."
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