Olaf Nicolai Books

Hotel Nacional in Rio with its trademark cylindrical tower, constructed between 1968-1972, is one of the highlights of architect Oscar Niemeyers later work, yet has been abandoned and left to deteriorate for some time. German artist and photographer Olaf Nicolai visited the site in September 2011 to exhaustively document its state of disrepair through hundreds of images. From elevator shafts plunging into darkness, stairways covered in guano and empty swimming pools, to rotting ceilings and wide interior spaces stripped bare, the collection of photos of this once shining jewel of architecture and luxury is as haunting as it is regrettable.

The Das Neue Alphabet series is now complete and available as a boxed set. Its twenty-six volumes develop a panoramic view of current theoretical formulations and contemporary artistic practice. The series came out of the last long-term HKW project, which ran for several years under the directorship of Bernd Scherer. Alphabets, binary code, DNA — the current explosion of knowledge relies on the world being dismembered and divided into the tiniest of units, making it amenable to computation and manipulation. Languages, codes, and other representational modes based on symbols are thus put in the service of political control, surveillance technologies, and economic exploitation. Das Neue Alphabet (The New Alphabet) series counters this process of functionalization with poetic discombobulations, sensuous recodings, and creolizations. The project is organized around the formal principle of constellation: a range of different themes, modes of representation, artistic positions, and graphic elements are combined and recombined in multiple variations. The series sets out to formulate new semiotic worlds conducive to alternative knowledge production.

"An artistic contribution to the exhibition 'Bau [Spiel] Haus', and completes the catalog and reader published... as a third part. The material introduced there represents the starting point for the narrative and forms of play of these six text miniatures and posters" -- back cover of portfolio

The inclusion of concepts of play and playfulness in artistic development, a time-tested approach that was specific to the Bauhaus, is the focus of this major exhibition. Progressive teaching theories from the nineteenth century are juxtaposed with modern-day equivalents; Friedrich Fröbel's "Play Gifts" meet with LEGO Architecture and Silicon Valley creative laboratories. Today, as computer games have gained broad social acceptance and intelligence has become programmable, questions of innovation and creativity in our models for working and living seem more topical than ever. Bauhaus masters like Walter Gropius and Johannes Itten already recognized the far-reaching social and artistic potential of play - at a time when something new had to be made out of the ruins of the old world. They made play the basis of their interdisciplinary preliminary courses, and the idea of combining work and play manifested in Itten's inaugural lecture of 1919 came to shape the Bauhaus programme. The Bauhaus school used the human urge to play as an engine to drive development and design. With this exhibition, Neues Museum traces this tradition and explores the ways the Bauhaus legacy is being passed on via the present to the future. -- publisher's statement

"This book on labyrinths is wonderful! It enlarges the traditional catalog of labyrinths so much and so well, being itself labyrinthine," remarked Jean-Luc Nancy, the French philosopher. Sadie Plant, author of Zeroes + Ones: Digital Women and the New Technoculture, has now translated Labyrinth into English. The starting point for this transcript of four lectures is a public art work that Olaf Nicolai installed in Paris in 1998. By exploring and combining a broad spectrum of topics that relate to the theme of the labyrinth, this book serves as both, a reference system to Nicolai's work as well as an independent source book dealing with labyrinthian matter ranging from the minotaur to the floorplans of IKEA. Published in collaboration with Rollo Press.

„Noms de Guerres“ ist eine Serie von Texten in der Tradition experimenteller Poesie. Das Wortmaterial für diese Arbeit stammt aus einer Recherche über Militäroperationen nach 1945 und besteht ausschließlich aus den für diese Aktionen verwendeten Codenamen. Kurze Erläuterungen zu den jeweils bezeichneten Operationen befinden sich am Ende des Buches.

"The publication Why women like to buy textiles that feel nice accompanies Olaf Nicolai's curtain. It is conceived as a textual system of references to this work in the form of an annotation apparatus with index of names and subjects. In the style of experimental literature the story creates in seven chapters a narration beyond linear logic. The study on "Die Arbeitslosen von Marienthal" (literally “the unemployed of Marienthal”) serves here as the starting point to unravel a complex web of references spanning from the decline of the textile industry to sociological opinion research, the development of consumer desires and psychological studies on tactile perception of fabrics, creating an intricate textural web" -- publisher note.

'Olaf Nicolai präsentiert 80 Fotografien, die den vom Blitzlicht seiner Kamera erhellten Boden vor seinen Füßen zeigen. So markiert der in der Dunkelheit kaum Sehende seinen Weg mit den kurzen Lichtblitzen eines Fotoapparates, als er sich durch das Death Valley vorantastet. Sie erleuchten jeweils wenige Zentimeter Boden, ein winziges Detail der Landschaft, deren Wüstencharakter, die Lebensfeindlichkeit ihrer brennenden Hitze und des gleißenden Tageslichts bekannt ist. Die Fotos weisen vor allem auf das unheimliche Dunkel der Nacht hin, die kein künstliches Licht erhellt.' (Anne von der Heiden)

'Privacy: a programme of symposia' took place from 8–16 May 2004 in Edinburgh, initiated by the Henry Moore Foundation Contemporary Projects, with artist Olaf Nicolai in collaboration with Protoacademy. Beside the frequently outlined economical and social impacts of privatization under the condition of capitalism, the symposia focussed on the potential of privacy as a framework and a tool for constructing alternative identities. In this sense traditional patterns of education were contrasted by modes and methods from daily life. The idea culminated in 9 days activity creating various public/private spheres, including renting a cinema, radio transmissions, picnics, presentations, walks and talks. Correspondingly the symposia took place in the private sphere of an apartment whilst still in use by its existing tenants. It was open to the public as a meeting point, to browse the library of books, music and films, to just have coffee, to hang out, or to have a chat. Throuh all these activities the symposia recreated privacy itself, as a productive 'refugium' of reflection and enjoyment. The publication contains in-depth interviews, critical essays and artist project notes.

While the Berlin-based Olaf Nicolai's work is always concerned with nature--his 2005 Venice Biennale piece Welcome to the Tears of St. Lawrence distributed publicity for a forthcoming meteor shower and information on where to watch it--his methods have been as roundabout as designing a new bus line and shelters, never implemented, for the city of Liverpool. This new catalogue is conceived as an artist's book, a working sketchbook or workbook, and as the conceptual continuation of his sold-out self-titled 2002 monograph. Among his central works since then, readers will find materials from Welcome to the Tears of St. Lawrence, here introduced to a wider audience for the first time, as well as 23 other works, each of which is introduced on a double-page spread with images and an informative text.