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Carsten Nicolai

  • About
  • Biography
  • Exhibitions
    • Group Exhibition
    • How Art Museum
  • Artworks
    • Installation
  • Articles
  • Carsten Nicolai
  • Birthdate: 1965
    Birthplace: Germany |
    Gender: Male
    Lives and Works in: Germany | Berlin
    About:
    He is part of an artist generation who works intensively in the transitional area between music, art and science. In his work he seeks to overcome the separation of the sensory perceptions of man by making scientific phenomenon like sound and light frequencies perceivable for both eyes and ears. Influenced by scientific reference systems, Nicolai often engages mathematic patterns such as grids and codes, as well as error, random and self-organizing structures. His installations have a minimalistic aesthetic that by its elegance and consistency is highly intriguing. After his participation in important international exhibitions like documenta x and the 49th and 50th Venice Biennale, Nicolai's works were shown worldwide in extensive solo and group exhibitions.
    His artistic œuvre echoes in his work as a musician. for his musical outputs he uses the pseudonym Alva Noto. With a strong adherence to reductionism, he leads his sound experiments into the field of electronic music creating his own code of signs, acoustics and visual symbols. Among others, he performed at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Centre Pompidou in Paris and Tate Modern in London. Most recently Nicolai scored the music for Alejandro González Iñárritu's newest film, 'The Revenant' which has been nominated for a Golden Globe, BAFTA, and Critics Choice Award.
    Education:
    1985 -1990    University of Technology, Dresden
  • Biography

  • SELECTED ONE-ARTIST EXHIBITIONS

    2015

    Carsten Nicolai: Unicolor, Brewster Street Car Park, London, June 24–August 2,

    2015.

    Carsten Nicolai: Primal Sound, Kunstverein Braunschweig, June 13–August 23,

    2015.

    2013

    Carsten Nicolai, Galleria Lorcan O'Neill, Rome, September–October 2013.

    Carsten Nicolai: Empty Garden, The Hole Gallery, Czech Republic, July 3–23, 2013.

    CRT MGN: Carsten Nicolai, Galerie EIGEN + ART, Berlin, April 11–May 18, 2013.

    Carsten Nicolai: Observatory, Ibid Projects, London, February 28–April 19, 2013.

    Carsten Nicolai: Unidisplay/Uni(psycho)acoustic, Museum für Moderne Kunst,

    Frankfurt am Main, January 26–May 5, 2013.

    2012

    Carsten Nicolai . Schatten Loop, COS Store, Berlin,April 27–May 8, 2012.

    Carsten Nicolai: Unidisplay, HangarBicocca, Milan, September 21–December 2,

    2012.Carsten Nicolai: Projections series, Musée d'Art Contemporain de Montréal, May

    5–29, 2012.

    2011

    Carsten Nicolai: filter, House of Art, Budweis, Czech Republic, October 20–

    November 20, 2011.

    Carsten Nicolai: pionier, The Pace Gallery, 545 West 22nd Street, New York,

    September 23–October 22, 2011.

    Carsten Nicolai: pionier, Galerie EIGEN + ART, Leipzig, April 30–September 3,

    2011.

    Carsten Nicolai: interferenz, Gelbe Musik, Berlin, March 25–April 20, 2011.

    Carsten Nicolai: Unitxt Mirrored, Galleria Lorcan O'Neill, Rome, February 19–

    March 19, 2011.

    Carsten Nicolai: pionier, Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius, Lithuania, February 5–

    March 13, 2011. (Catalogue)

    2010

    Carsten Nicolai: polar m [mirrored], Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media, Japan,

    November 14, 2010–February 6, 2011.

    Carsten Nicolai, Museo Hendrik Christian Andersen, Rome, October 30, 2010–

    January 9, 2011.

    Carsten Nicolai, Museo Arte Gallarate, Italy, October 2–31, 2010.

    Carsten Nicolai: moiré, The Pace Gallery, 534 West 25th Street, New York, May

    21–June 25, 2010. (Catalogue)

    Carsten Nicolai: anti reflex, La Casa Encendida, Madrid, April 23–June 6, 2010.

    Carsten Nicolai: autoR, Temporäre Kunsthalle, Berlin, April 1–August 31. 2010.

    Carsten Nicolai: monitor, Siobhan Davies Studios, London, March 18–April 11,

    2010.

    Carsten Nicolai: rota, Museum der Bildenden Künste, Leipzig, February 25–May 2,

    2010.2009

    Carsten Nicolai: pioneer ii, Museo d'Arte Contemporanea Donna Regina, Piazza

    del Plebiscito, Naples, December 23, 2009–January 30, 2010.

    Carsten Nicolai: Aoyama Space, Kunstraum Innsbruck, November 7–December 19,

    2009. (Catalogue)

    Carsten Nicolai: Unitxt, Sketch Gallery, London, September 5–October 9, 2009.

    Carsten Nicolai: rota, Schering Stiftung, The Ernst Schering Foundation,Berlin, July

    3–September 26, 2009.

    2008

    Carsten Nicolai: Anti Reflex, Kunsthalle Hamburg, Galerie der Gegenwart, Germany,

    September 11, 2008–December 7, 2008.

    Carsten Nicolai: Tired Light, Galerie EIGEN + ART, Berlin, May 2–June 28, 2008.

    2007

    Carsten Nicolai: static balance, PaceWildenstein, 534 West 25th Street, New York,

    October 5–November 3, 2007.

    Carsten Nicolai: static fades, Haus Konstruktiv, Zürich, May 31–August 1, 2007.

    (Catalogue)

    Carsten Nicolai, Kunsthalle Hamburg, February–November 2007.

    2006

    Carsten Nicolai: Polylit, Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, May 2006.

    2005

    Carsten Nicolai: Audio Visual Spaces, Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst

    (S.M.A.K.), Gent, November 12, 2005–January 15, 2006. (Catalogue)

    Carsten Nicolai: Inver, Galerie EIGEN + ART, Leipzig, September 17–December

    23, 2005.

    Carsten Nicolai–Sub Vision,Künstler.Archiv: Neue Werke zu historischen Beständen, 

    Akademie der Künste, Berlin, June 19–August 28, 2005. (Catalogue)

    Carsten Nicolai: Syn Chron, Architectural Body as Interface. Space. Light. Sound,

    Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin, February 25–April 3, 2005. Traveled as CarstenNicolai: Syn Chron to: Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media, Japan, December 17,

    2005–February 19, 2006. (Catalogue)

    Carsten Nicolai–Anti Reflex, Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, Römerberg, January 20–

    March 28, 2005. (Catalogue)

    2003

    Carsten Nicolai: Funken, Galerie EIGEN + ART, Berlin, November 1–December 20,

    2003.

    Carsten Nicolai: Modular Re.Strukt, Paolo Curti/Annamaria Gambuzzi & Co., Milan,

    April 9–May 17, 2003.

    2002

    Carsten Nicola: Visual Rhythm, Galerie EIGEN + ART, Leipzig, November 30,

    2002–January 25, 2003.

    Carsten Nicolai: Auto Pilot, WATARI–UM, Watari Museum of Contemporary Art,

    Tokyo, September 13–November 23, 2002. (Catalogue)

    2001

    Carsten Nicolai, Milch Gallery, London, 2001.

    Carsten Nicolai: Frozen Water, Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz, Germany, November

    25, 2001–January 13, 2002.

    Carsten Nicolai: Visuelles Feld, Galerie EIGEN + ART, Berlin, September 8–

    October 20, 2001.

    Carsten Nicolai: Snow Noise, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, July1–

    August 5, 2001. Traveled to: Platform Garanti Contemporary Art Center, Istanbul,

    September 22–November 11, 2001.

    Carsten Nicolai: Telefunken and Prototypes, Paolo Curti/Annamaria Gambuzzi & Co.,

    Milan, January 18–March 18, 2001.

    2000

    Carsten Nicolai, Konstmuseum Ystad, Sweden, October 2000.

    Carsten Nicolai, Plug In Gallery, Winnipeg, October 11–November 11, 2000.

    (Curated by Wayne Baerwaldt)

    Carsten Nicolai: Prototypen–Telefunken, Galerie EIGEN + ART, Berlin, April 15–

    May 20, 2000.1999

    Carsten Nicolai, 1% space, Copenhagen, 1999.

    Carsten Nicolai: Produktionen 1999/2000, Kunsthalle Vierseithof, Luckenwalde,

    November 20, 1999–January 3, 2000. (Catalogue)

    1998

    Carsten Nicolai: Kosmos + Turm, The Singuhr Sound Gallery in Parochial, Berlin,

    September 18–October 18, 1998. (Catalogue)

    Carsten Nicolai: POLYFOTO, Galerie fürZeitgenoessische Kunst, Leipzig, July 6–

    August 23, 1998. (Catalogue)

    Carsten Nicolai, Galerie EIGEN + ART, Leipzig, July 4–August 1, 1998.

    1997

    Carsten Nicolai, Städtisches Kunstmuseum Spendhaus Reutlingen, Germany, 1997.

    Carsten Nicolai, Galerie EIGEN + ART, Berlin, May 10–June 21, 1997.

    1996

    Carsten Nicolai: Light–Stencil–Installation for the Windows of The New York

    Kunsthalle, The New York Kunsthalle, 1996.

    Carsten Nicolai, Galerie EIGEN + ART, Leipzig, December 5, 1996–January 18,

    1997.

    Carsten Nicolai: NERV + SPIN, Städtische Kunstsammlungen, Neue Galerie im

    Höhmann-Haus, Augsburg, April 19–June 9, 1996. (Catalogue)

    Carsten Nicolai: NOTO + SPIN, Galerie Carol Johnssen, Munich, April 17–June 26,

    1996.

    1995

    Carsten Nicolai: SPIN & KÄFIG Material, Kunstverein Konstanz e.V., Germany,

    1995. Traveled to: Leonhardi-Museum Dresden, 1996. (Catalogue)

    Carsten Nicolai: Weiss & Salz, Galerie Margrit Gass, Basel, 1995.

    Carsten Nicolai: Ein Bild Angucken, Kunstverein Elsterpark, Leipzig, 1995.

    Carsten Nicolai: SPIN & KÄFIG, Galerie EIGEN + ART, Berlin, May 13–June 17,

    1995. Traveled to: Galerie Springer, Berlin, 1995.1994

    Carsten Nicolai: Twin, Neue Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, August

    31–October 30, 1994. (Catalogue)

    Carsten Nicolai: Schwarz Holz, Reutlingen, Germany: Kunstmuseum Spendhaus,

    May 8–July 31, 1994: (Catalogue)

    1993

    Carsten Nicolai: Morbus, Galerie Weißer Elefant, Berlin, 1993. (Catalogue)

    Carsten Nicolai: Corpus, Städtische Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz, Germany, August

    22–September 30, 1993. Traveled to: Museum Schloß Morsbroich, Leverkusen,

    Germany, November 23, 1993–January 23, 1994; and Espace des Arts, Chalon–

    Sur–Saône, France, March 11–April 17, 1994. (Catalogue)

    Carsten Nicolai, Galerie EIGEN + ART, Berlin, February 20–March 27, 1993.

    1992

    Carsten Nicolai: Homa, Goethe-Institut, Galerie Condé, Paris, 1992. Traveled to:

    Goethe-Institut, Centre de la Pierre, Bordeaux, 1993.

    Carsten Nicolai: Ananta, Voxxx Galerie, Chemnitz, Germany, 1992.

    Carsten Nicolai: Running Sap, Galerie EIGEN + ART, Berlin, September 3–October

    10, 1992 and Galerie Springer, Berlin, October 9–November 11, 1992. (Catalogue)

    1991

    Carsten Nicolai, Galerie Dönisch-Seidel, Kleve, Germany, 1991.

    Carsten Nicolai: Magica II, Kunst-Werke Berlin, 1991.

    Carsten Nicolai: AUG, Galerie EIGEN + ART, Leipzig, March 9–April 13, 1991.

    1990

    Carsten Nicolai: Hand, Produzentengalerie "OSCAR", Chemnitz, Germany, 1990.

    1987

    Carsten Nicolai, Galerie J. Deloch, Berlin, 1987.

    1986

    Carsten Nicolai: der Keller, Galerie EIGEN + ART, Leipzig, 1986.


  • Exhibitions
    • You as Me, Hold the Gaze
      You as Me, Hold the Gaze
      Feb 17, 2023 - Oct 12, 2023
      Curator: Xu Tianyi
      Artists: Markus Lüpertz, aaajiao, LLND, Oreet Ashery, Darren Almond, Hu Yun, Carsten Nicolai, Li Binyuan, Lee Yongbaek, Lin Ke, Lin Tianmiao, Liu Wei, Shi Yong, Lu Lei, Tong Wenmin, Tobias Rehberger, Yang Jiecang, Ye Linghan, Yu Ji, Zhang Peili, Zhou Xiaohu, Li Liao, Lee Bul
      • Group Exhibition, How Art Museum
  • Artworks
  • Articles

    • You as Me, Hold the Gaze

      2023-06-13 By Xu Tianyi

      My age, my beast, who will ever

      Look into your eyes.

      And with his own blood glue together

      The backbones of two centuries?

      Osip Mandelstam (1891-1938) wrote down the poem The Age (1923) at the beginning of the 20th century. While expressing his visions and hopes for the age, it also shed light on the conflicts between "poet and his time". In another poem he wrote later, it read: "No, I am no one's contemporary". (1924)

      The Age as quoted in Giorgio Agamben's What Is the Contemporary? and Alain Badiou's The Century . In What Is the Contemporary?, Agamben explained "The contemporary is he who firmly holds his gaze on his own time so as to perceive not its light, but rather its darkness. All eras, for those who experience contemporariness, are obscure." Badiou, when quoting the poem at the end of the 20th century, pointed out that Mandelstam's "beast" as a newborn and fragile presence was doomed to be transient. What Badiou was trying to break was exactly this "backbone". 

      It is widely acknowledged that the 20th century was a century of division. And to gain insights into such "division" takes not only knowledge of what happened in this century, but also of what the people of this century were thinking. If we merely label things that happened without probing into what the people of the century were thinking, we can neither get to truly know the present nor prevent things from repeating themselves. In this same logic, this century would have nothing to with the "future" since its very beginning. 

      You and I as people of some experience of the contemporary are the minimum unit to constitute the complex and multi-layered veins of time of contemporaneity. Hence we shall not follow linear time to describe the nature of things. The exhibition on view, as celebration of the fifth anniversary of the HOW Art Museum (Shanghai), features over 30 pieces of installations and videos by more than 20 artists both at home and from abroad including Lee Bul, Liu Wei, Zhang Peili, Lin Tianmiao, Markus Lüpertz and Carsten Nicolai. Different from the usual curatorial approach that follows a linear timeline to present the works within museum collection, the exhibition follows the principle of "contemporary is he who firmly holds his gaze on his own time". Under the title "You as Me", "you" and "I" are the core of the dialogue with the space, to fill up the absence of subject and scene, reflect upon the tragedies of the century, build connections between contemporary events and past reference, define time from a sociological perspective, treat the "contemporary" as a dividing point between the past and the future, disrupt and reverse language on the cultural level through social installation, rethink of the cultural representations beyond the physical body to confront the fragmented digital world, and morph into an organic life form that cannot be written off in this digital world. 

      However, the attempt to construct non-linear histories through creative reassemblages of time is in itself trapped in the modern view of history. The underlying narratives among different works are merely judgements based on information fed to us from the outside. You and I need to firmly hold our gaze so as to perceive not its light, but rather its darkness.

    [Synopsis] You as Me, Hold the Gaze

    By Xu Tianyi 2023-06-13

    My age, my beast, who will ever

    Look into your eyes.

    And with his own blood glue together

    The backbones of two centuries?

    Osip Mandelstam (1891-1938) wrote down the poem The Age (1923) at the beginning of the 20th century. While expressing his visions and hopes for the age, it also shed light on the conflicts between "poet and his time". In another poem he wrote later, it read: "No, I am no one's contemporary". (1924)

    The Age as quoted in Giorgio Agamben's What Is the Contemporary? and Alain Badiou's The Century . In What Is the Contemporary?, Agamben explained "The contemporary is he who firmly holds his gaze on his own time so as to perceive not its light, but rather its darkness. All eras, for those who experience contemporariness, are obscure." Badiou, when quoting the poem at the end of the 20th century, pointed out that Mandelstam's "beast" as a newborn and fragile presence was doomed to be transient. What Badiou was trying to break was exactly this "backbone". 

    It is widely acknowledged that the 20th century was a century of division. And to gain insights into such "division" takes not only knowledge of what happened in this century, but also of what the people of this century were thinking. If we merely label things that happened without probing into what the people of the century were thinking, we can neither get to truly know the present nor prevent things from repeating themselves. In this same logic, this century would have nothing to with the "future" since its very beginning. 

    You and I as people of some experience of the contemporary are the minimum unit to constitute the complex and multi-layered veins of time of contemporaneity. Hence we shall not follow linear time to describe the nature of things. The exhibition on view, as celebration of the fifth anniversary of the HOW Art Museum (Shanghai), features over 30 pieces of installations and videos by more than 20 artists both at home and from abroad including Lee Bul, Liu Wei, Zhang Peili, Lin Tianmiao, Markus Lüpertz and Carsten Nicolai. Different from the usual curatorial approach that follows a linear timeline to present the works within museum collection, the exhibition follows the principle of "contemporary is he who firmly holds his gaze on his own time". Under the title "You as Me", "you" and "I" are the core of the dialogue with the space, to fill up the absence of subject and scene, reflect upon the tragedies of the century, build connections between contemporary events and past reference, define time from a sociological perspective, treat the "contemporary" as a dividing point between the past and the future, disrupt and reverse language on the cultural level through social installation, rethink of the cultural representations beyond the physical body to confront the fragmented digital world, and morph into an organic life form that cannot be written off in this digital world. 

    However, the attempt to construct non-linear histories through creative reassemblages of time is in itself trapped in the modern view of history. The underlying narratives among different works are merely judgements based on information fed to us from the outside. You and I need to firmly hold our gaze so as to perceive not its light, but rather its darkness.

    Related Artists aaajiao , LLND , Oreet Ashery , Darren Almond , Hu Yun , Lee Bul , Li Liao , Carsten Nicolai , Lee Yongbaek , Li Binyuan , Lin Ke , Lin Tianmiao , Liu Wei , Shi Yong , Markus Lüpertz , Lu Lei , Tong Wenmin , Tobias Rehberger , Yang Jiecang , Zhang Peili , Yu Ji , Ye Linghan , Zhou Wendou , Zhou Xiaohu ,









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