Carsten Nicolai: autoR

The project will pass through three phases:

(1) First, the Kunsthalle will be covered with sheets of white PVC. The resulting empty surface contrasts with the numerous advertising images and architectural projections on and around Schlossplatz’it represents a kind of zero state, a space of possibility.

(2) Application of stickers begins on June 8, 2010, 11 am. During the first week (8’ 13 June, 11 am’6 pm) aerial work platforms will be available, allowing visitors to attach stickers up to a height of eleven meters.

(3) Visitors are invited to apply further stickers until the end of the project (August 31, 2010). The result is a permanently changing facade whose appearance is shaped by a dynamic, interactive process that is open to all visitors.
The installation’s title is derived from the Greek ‘auto’ (founded on itself), plus the letter R, creating the ‘author’ who brings forth something new. In the context of the project, the visitor takes on the role of the author, combining personal decisions with the tools provided by the artist to drive forward this interactive, creative design process.

With the regular geometric shape produced in seven different colors, Nicolai has created a module that can be combined on the facade of the Kunsthalle into freely designed forms, clusters, and structures. As in Nicolai’s earlier works modular re.strukt (2003) and random dot (2002), which also invited visitors to help shape the result, autoR foregrounds the decisive influence of randomness and process in determining the overall appearance of the work.

Carsten Nicolai, autoR at the Temporäre Kunsthalle, Berlin from this is tomorrow on Vimeo.

“By focussing in my work on self-organizing processes, I wish to explore the potential of randomness and errors while retaining control to the extent that I can organize them and initiate creative processes. Many of my works rely on a specific rule and have the character of models. The model serves as an ordering principle that faciliates the identification of chaotic movements. I am interested in both - chaos and order - and they lie incredibly close to one another.’ - Carsten Nicolai