Samani. Some Proposals to Answer Important Questions
Olaf Nicolai
Olaf Nicolai
Samani. Some Proposals to Answer Important Questions, 2008
Steel pole, spotlight, motor, control box, program, motion detector
400 x 98 x 98 cm3 min 20 sec (light program)
Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary Collection
Installation view: Olaf Nicolai, Pour // finir // encore, Palazzo Massari (PAC), Ferrara, Italy, 2008
© VEGAP, Madrid, 2026 | Photo: Courtesy the artist | Galerie EIGEN + ART, Leipzig/Berlin
Olaf Nicolai
Samani. Some Proposals to Answer Important Questions, 2008
Steel pole, spotlight, motor, control box, program, motion detector
400 x 98 x 98 cm3 min 20 sec (light program)
Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary Collection
Installation view: Olaf Nicolai, Pour // finir // encore, Palazzo Massari (PAC), Ferrara, Italy, 2008
© VEGAP, Madrid, 2026 | Photo: Courtesy the artist | Galerie EIGEN + ART, Leipzig/Berlin
Olaf Nicolai
Samani. Some Proposals to Answer Important Questions (Vienna Version), 2008
Steel pole, spotlight, motor, control box, program, motion detector
400 x 98 x 98 cm3 min 20 sec (light program)
Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary Collection
Installation view: Pasajes. Viajes por el híper-espacio. La Colección Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial, Gijón, Spain, 2010
© VEGAP, Madrid, 2026 | Photo: Reto Guntli
Olaf Nicolai
Samani. Some Proposals to Answer Important Questions (Vienna Version), 2008
Steel pole, spotlight, motor, control box, program, motion detector
400 x 98 x 98 cm3 min 20 sec (light program)
Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary Collection
Installation view: Pasajes. Viajes por el híper-espacio. La Colección Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial, Gijón, Spain, 2010
© VEGAP, Madrid, 2026 | Photo: Reto Guntli
- Date
- 2009
- Medium
- Steel pole, spotlight, motor, control box, program, motion detector
- Dimension
- 400 x 98 x 98 cm 3 min 20 sec (light program)
- Credit
TBA21 Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary Collection
- This artwork is part of the donation and long-term loan from TBA21 to the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza.
Details
Samani. Some Proposals to Answer Important Questions brings the choreographed movement of a pole dance into mind. In a darkened room, a single spotlight travels like a robot along a metal pole, turning abruptly on its own axis. It slides up and down, spins around, drifts, wiggles in smooth arabesque patterns, following elaborate applications of repeated and stochastic rhythms. The tempo is frequently altered between prestissimo and andante, with frequent breaks modulating the cycle, which averages five minutes. The rapid rotations of light produce a “spotting” of the space, a frenetic sense of being followed by a searchlight or surveillance camera.
As an animated form, Samani seems to express a foreign intelligence, the schizoid split between the kinetic machine and human (gendered) subjectivity.
As it solely performs its pre-programmed iridescent performativity, it defers the legitimating crisis of the agent to act in a world and thus to answer important questions.