Olaf Nicolai

"Fire Walk With Me" Olaf Nicolai’s piece is a site-specific mural with a neon sign that the artist conceived and created for this location. The striped mural imitates the specific technique of Iris printing, Nicolai continues and expands his research into the “politics of forms” and into the significance of the sensual for political statements. Iris printing, rarely used today, was often applied for political flyers in the sixties and seventies, combining the technique’s glamour with the politics of that time. The neon sign displayed on striped background resembles flags that have passed here. The neon text harkens back to David Lynch’s 1992 “Twin Peaks. Fire Walk With Me” TV series turned into film. In Nicolai’s piece the text, Fire Walk With Me, is set in a circle and it can be read in several variations: fire walk with me, walk with me fire, with me fire walk, me fire walk with, etc. Circular neon text leaves it to viewer which way one will be reading it. The mural is references rainbow without using actual rainbow colors which brings us to the subtitle of Nicolai’s piece: May 17, 2013, the date of the opening of this piece, as well as a date of infamous parade bashing in Tbilisi. Olaf Nicolai is a prominent German artist living and working in Berlin. His work is in the collections of such major museums as MoMA and Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid. His latest notable projects include German pavilion in Venice, 2015 and a series of year long art performances called Escalier du Chant [Staircase of Song] at Munich’s modern art museum in 2011. Currently Olaf Nicolai is a professor at the Munich Art Academy.