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Carsten Nicolai
UNITXT MIRRORED, 2011

Galleria Lorcan O`Neil, Rome © Carsten Nicolai

Collection

Carsten Nicolai

Audio-visual installation
Dimensions variable

The installation has both a visual and a sound component. A constantly moving image is projected onto a screen the size of an entire wall. On each side of this screen the walls have been perfectly mirrored. The mirrors on each side of the screen give the impression that the video projects into infinity, creating an endless visual tunnel. The sound - or music - of the work was, in the case of Galleria Lorcan O'Neill Roma - heard by the vibration of a large glass window through which the viewer saw the work. The project makes reference to the audio-visual language of UNITXT, a sound piece which Nicolai produced in 2008 under the pseudonym of Alva Noto for the Berlin based record label Raster-Noton. The title UNITXT can be read as 'unit extended' - referring to the unit of a rhythmic grid - or 'universal text' - a universal language (such as mathematics, with its units, constants and measurements) which is in turn translated into words or the codes of sound itself.
The video consists of the projection of horizontal lines of colour, constantly shifitng, which occupy the entire wall; the projection is based on the real-time manipulation and modulation of patterns generated by the music. The projection is a response to the sound, and hence the resulting image constantly changes without repetition. The use of mirrors placed along the side of the screen wall allows the projection to replicate itself and extend beyond the physical boundaries of the space. (Hence the MIRRORED in the title.) The music is translated into a light projection, and both - sound and visuals - are equally essential to the work. The composite nature of the piece reflects the artist's double identity as composer and visual artist.

*1965 in Karl-marx-stadt, Germany | Living and working in Berlin and Chemnitz, Germany

Artist's website

http://www.carstennicolai.de/

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