Florian Hecker works primarily with performance and installation, frequently collaborating with other artists, as well as academic researchers in the fields of auditory perception and digital music. Through his work, Hecker aspires to making the physical, material properties and presence of sound more palpable to listeners and spectators. To this end, Hecker combines audio products with images that have been subjected to the same digital processes he uses to create electronic music.

The 2012 project Chimerization is of particular interest: shown at documenta 13, Artists Space, and other venues, Hecker produced a series of recordings, manipulated images, texts, and installations. Working with the Iranian writer and philosopher Reza Negarestani, the project consisted of three channels, and on each of these, narrators read Negarestani’s libretto in English, Farsi, and German, respectively. Hecker overlaid these different versions one upon another—they vary in tone and speed—in order to achieve a mesmerizing and dizzying sound experience.

Hecker has presented his work globally since the early 2000s, including in exhibitions at the 53rd Venice Biennale, the 3rd Bienal Internacional de Arte Contemporaneo de Sevilla in Spain, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Toyko, Manifesta 7, the Musee d'Art Modern de la Ville in Paris, Nottingham Contemporary, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Institute of Contemporary in London, Berlin's Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (n.b.k), and Frankfurt's Museum für Moderne Kunst. Hecker is also a regular performer, has an extensive discography, and has performed live at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, Centre George Pompidou in Paris, Tate Modern in London, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma in Helsinki.