Olaf Nicolai

From 1924, the BBC regularly broadcast from Beatrice Harrison’s garden, where the cellist would play accompanied by nightingales. On 19 May 1942, only the birds were supposed to be heard on air. However, they were interrupted by 197 British bombers appearing overhead. The transmission was cut off as it would have given away the squadron’s position. The BBC later produced a double-sided record of this moment: the first side contains the departing planes, the second their return—eleven fewer. Olaf Nicolai has repressed this recording and embedded it in a sound installation that enables concentrated listening. Visitors can decide which side(s) to put on.

Olaf Nicolai (1962, Halle an der Saale, Germany) is an artist whose interdisciplinary work deals with experiences of space, time, and physicality. His works have been shown in venues such as Mathildenhöhe Darmstadt; Kunsthalle Wien; MAXXI, Rome; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Musée du Louvre, Paris; Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich; Kestner Gesellschaft, Hannover; Museum of Modern Art, New York; and WATARI-UM, Tokyo. Nicolai has participated in Documenta 14, Kassel and Athens (2017), and the 56th Venice Biennale (2015), among others, and received the Karl Sczuka Prize. He lives in Berlin.