Olaf Nicolai: Rewind Forward

Olaf Nicolai questions the processes of perception in order to elicit a different kind of reception. "Questions of form, moods, attitudes and style are not just vain play with surfaces. They are questions of [the] organizational forms of activities," he explains. In his works, Nicolai displays attitudes and styles, combining and collecting them. He integrates classical artistic techniques and the act of collecting; he secures evidence and constructs archives as the activities of his artistic production. His surprising, often overwhelming installations combine current questions of the natural sciences and the liberal arts with conceptional works that refer to biology, architecture, aesthetics, iconography, history, and the general processes of civilization and urban life. Focused on the construction and exploration of new aesthetic contexts, Nicolai's work often reflects the difference between nature and art, or naturalness and artificiality. This first big monograph is published on the occasion of Nicolai's receipt of the Kunstpreis from the city of Wolfsburg. — Testi: Esche Charles, Zizek Slavoj et al. F.to: 22x27; pagg. 224; 176 COL 102 BN; rileg. brossura. Editore: Hatje Cantz Verlag, Ostfildern, 2003.