Olaf Nicolai

He is constantly translating scientific theories into art, into aesthetic-artistic idioms, rendering them accessible through new contexts; he refers to American sociologist, Jeremy Rifkin, who wrote: The production of art is the final step of capitalism, whose driving force has always been to coopt ever more human activities into economic processes.Considered one of Germany’s leading artists, Olaf Nicolai takes on a range of conceptual themes, from political and cultural critiques to inquiries into human perception.

A recurring subject is the aesthetic appropriation of nature by human culture and design, explored through mixed-media sculptures and images, as in his juxtaposition of plant forms with depictions of hand gestures in Italian Renaissance paintings.

“They are questions of organizational forms of activities.” [2] In several of his works the artist confronts "socialist ideals" with its direct adversary, the "capitalistic market economy" and thus formulates the ambivalence and contradiction between aspects of utopia, pragmatism, consumerism and aesthetics.

At its current venue this work of art is perfectly located as the Order of Saint Bruno requests silence and contemplation as prerequisite to a spiritual life.

On October 24, 2014 Austria's president Heinz Fischer officially spoke at the opening of Nicolai's Memorial for the Victims of Nazi Military Justice at Viennas Ballhausplatz.

The inscription on top of the monument consists of a concrete poem by Scottish point Ian Hamilton Finlay with just two words: all (repeated several times) and alone (reproduced just once, in the center of the X).