On the occasion of Art Basel Hong Kong, the Goethe-Institut presents a selection of shots from the source movie of fades by Carsten Nicolai.
fades is a video installation designed for a specific room setting. The video incorporates and shows light determined gradients based on linear and logarithmic wave modulations that move in dynamic patterns hence creating a variety of shapes and structures. These visual patterns are also transferred in a synchronized soundtrack of white noise as high frequency sounds and ’displayed’ audible in the space. Similar to music fades translates and establishes a universal perceptible audio-visual language that operates beyond our usual systems of understanding. Hence arising are 48 shots from the source movie of fades – 18 of them were selected for this exhibition – each of which could be understood as a blueprint for a mathematical vocabulary. The stills represent the ideal symbiotic interplay to be specifically presented at Goethe-Institut Hongkong during Art Basel Hong Kong 2019.
Carsten Nicolai, born 1965 in Karl-Marx-Stadt, is a German artist and musician based in Berlin. 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 phenomenons 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. Together with Olaf Bender and Frank Bretschneider he is co-founder of the label ‘raster-noton. archiv für ton und nichtton’. Diverse musical projects include remarkable collaborations with Ryuichi Sakamoto, Ryoji Ikeda (cyclo.), Blixa Bargeld or Mika Vainio. Nicolai toured extensively as Alva Noto through Europe, Asia, South America and the US. 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.
In collaboration with Galerie EIGEN + ART, A VIP Programme of Art Basel Hong Kong
Carsten-Nicolai-photo-credit-andrey-bold
Opening and Artist Talk “Carsten Nicolai in dialogue with Magnus Renfrew”: Monday, March 25, 2019, 7:00pm
For more information: https://www.goethe.de