As a musician under the pseudonym Alva Noto, Nicolai is one of the best-known representatives of contemporary electronic music of his generation. Since his participation in documenta X (1997), his visual artworks have also been exhibited worldwide. Using electronic sound and light, Nicolai creates minimalist installations, sound performances, and visualizations of physical phenomena that reflect systems and structures of the media world. In K21, Nicolai will organize the expansive space on the lower floor as an open, dually laid out set for the presentation of roughly forty multimedia works, many of which are designed for interaction.

Carsten Nicolai (*1965 in Karl-Marx-Stadt, now Chemnitz) lives and works in Berlin.