Carsten Nicolai
Exhibition "Techno Worlds"
future past perfect pt. 03 (u_08-1)
conceived as the third part of the series under the name future past perfect, the short film introduces a narrative story that was inspired by a fascination for automation processes as well as on codes and grids that materialized in the record alva noto . unitxt in 2008. the series itself started in 2006 and is designed as a row of conceptually independent movies that document nicolai’s focus of interest of the respective year of origin and also builds up on the results of the movie(s) before.
a quiet autumn night in tokyo. a man stops his car at a shop front with a number of vending machines to get a last drink of tea on his way home. he inserts a coin, but instead of the usual procedure, the machine starts performing its own peculiar performance...
actor: kyusaku shimada
sound: alva noto
voice: anne-james chaton
director: carsten nicolai
2nd director: simon mayer
music: alva noto . unitxt u_08-1, taken from alva noto . unitxt (raster-noton 2008)
Courtesy by Galerie EIGEN + ART Leipzig/Berlin and Pace Gallery
VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2021
Biography
Carsten Nicolai is a German artist living in Berlin, using the pseudonym Alva Noto for his musical output. Born in Karl-Marx-Stadt (now Chemnitz) in 1965, he is part of a generation of artists working intensively in the transient area between music, art, and science. With a strong dedication to reductionism, he creates sound experiments with his own codes of signs, acoustics and visual symbols. His various musical projects include notable collaborations with Ryuichi Sakamoto, Ryoji Ikeda (cyclo), Blixa Bargeld and Mika Vainio. Nicolai musical oeuvre is reflected in his work as a visual artist. Inspired by scientific reference systems, he deals with mathematical patterns such as grids and codes, error and random structures, and the phenomenon of self-organisation. In doing so, he constantly hurdles the boundaries across different artistic genres. Since his participation in documenta X (1997) and the 49th and 50th Biennale di Venezia (2001 and 2003), his works have been presented in exhibitions at renowned museums and galleries around the world.