Olaf Nicolai


St. Kolumba oder: Considering a multiplicity of appearances in light of a particular aspect of relevance, 2007

St. Kolumba, Kolumbastraße 2–4, Mon–Sun 8:00 am – 7:30 pm

A major theme of Olaf Nicolai’s 
(* 1962) multifaceted œuvre 
is the interdependence between symbolic gestures and those 
that create space. The unique dynamic of these types of settings underscores his work, “St. Kolum-ba.”: an existing room within the context of an exhibition, a kind of ready-made involving space. He describes the situation as “room snatching,” and his reference here is Jack Finney’s science fiction novel, “The Body Snatchers”, in which the bodies of the inhabitants of a small American town are possessed by an alien species, which uses them to reproduce. This theme is used 
by Nicolai to refer to the artistic practice of employing readymades – a practice, whose presentation of found objects 
in the context of art does indeed seem to make use of clear signs, but simoultanoeusly articulates the conditions under which 
the object is recoded and thus 
suggests possible multiple transit ivities. An extension of the practice is an artist’s book, which will be set out in the chapel for visitors to take with them. The pages of the book merely show colors that run together. This effect is created by the printing technique employed: rainbow printing, in which the various colored inks used randomly mix together in the machine. Through this, the claim of Nicolai’s work becomes the complex network 
of needs, interests, and behaviors that exist outside what is obviously articulated. An imaginary scenario, liberated from the given realities, thus opens up for the European Kunsthalle.