1961
Leverkusen: two 13 m high concrete objects are created for a school, the so-called Sahara-Reliefs.

1962
Production of the ZERO film 0 x 0 = Kunst (0 x 0 = Art).

1962-1963
Sojourns to Morocco und Algeria, first experiments with light in the desert.

1963
Mack paints his first canvas. Since then he has been painting his so-called chromatic paintings on paper, in which the spectrum of light is varied.
Premio Selezione Marzotto, Italy, Award of the Biennale of San Marino
(with G. Graubner, O. Piene, G. Uecker)

1963-1964
Encounters Marisol and Ad Reinhard in London
First stay in New York; atelier in the Chelsea Hotel
Production of a Lichtmauer (Wall of Light) for the exhibition Integratie (Integration) in Antwerp by labourers in absence of the artist which is declared to be an original although he had never seen it before.

1964-1966
Atelier in New York, 10th Street, 410 East
Meets Barnett Newman
Work in an airport hangar in Dallas on the large Lichtparavent (Screen) for an office building.
Lectures on the Sahara-Projekt at the Institute of Contemporary Art in
London and at the universities of New York and Philadelphia.

1965
1 Prix arts plastique, 4th Biennale de Paris.

1966
Group ZERO splits up; final common exhibition with Otto Piene and Günther Uecker in Bonn; organises there together with Uecker the ZERO Festival at the railway station Rolandseck, where ca. 1000 people celebrate the end of the ZERO era.

since 1967
Atelier and domicile at the Huppertzhof in Mönchengladbach.

1968
Appointed as a member of the Academy of Arts, Berlin
Trip to the Tunisian desert, filming of the Tele- Mack Film
Stage design according to a sonata from Beethoven for a ballet production of the German Opera on the Rhine in Düsseldorf.

1969
Stage design for Dürrenmatt's Titus Andronicus from Shakespeare, Schauspielhaus Düsseldorf
Stage design for the ballet production Reflexionen according to music from Frank Martin, German Opera on the Rhine in Düsseldorf.

1970
Appointment as a Professor in Osaka, Japan, but discontinuation of teaching in the same year
Work on the German pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka with the objects Spiegelplantagen, Wasserskulptur and Feuerwald as well as realisation of a 12 m high Lichtstele in front of the Expo Museum of Fine Arts, Osaka.
Thomas Lenk, K.-G. Pfahler, Günther Uecker and Heinz Mack are the representatives for Western Germany at the XXXV Biennale in Venice
Adolf-Grimme special award for the Tele- Mack film