How Carsten Höller took apart a SANAA building

Gone are the days when installing an art exhibition typically involved hanging paintings, the biggest safety hazard of which involved balancing on top of a wobbly wooden ladder to reach the only remaining spot, high on the walls of The Salon. These days, a curator may regularly have to call for a hard-hat and a JCB when putting a show together.

Having banished the word 'limitations' from the contemporary art dictionary, there is nothing to stand in the way of an artist and his or her idea, especially a mere ceiling or floor.

These videos give a behind-the-scenes look at the installation of the latest institution-intrusion at the New Museum in New York. As part of German artist Carsten Höller’s large survey show Experience (until January 12), visitors are invited to travel between the levels not by stairs or escalator (far too run-of-the-mill) but via a 102 foot stainless-steel slide.

Fork-lift trucks, circular saws and pneumatic drills were put to work for the installation, slicing through the SANAA-designed building which opened in 2007. Höller’s slides have become a trademark for the artist since their first outing at the Berlin Biennale in 1998. They appeared snaking round a giant column in the Turbine Hall of Tate Modern back in 2007.

The New Museum show really is a spectacle to be 'experienced' rather than observed. Visitors are also invited to ride on a mirrored carousel or take a dip in Psycho Tank a 'sensory deprivation pool'.

Watch SANAA architect Kazuyo Sejima as she talks exclusively to Phaidon about the design and creation of New York's New Museum.  

Click here to look at some of SANAA's most impressive designs.