LENIN: 8qm

For his piece in the Werkleitz Biennial in 2000, Olaf Nicolai commissioned a tailor in the East German city of Calbe to copy a Prada suit – and freely distributed the pattern as a pamphlet and in the local weekend supplement; he silkscreened the cover of a Vogue magazine onto a mirror as a reflection of his own ideas; and, he fabricated Lenin: 8qm as an evocative rumination on the polarities of socialist ideals and capitalist realities. The base material of the work comes straight from the runway – the sequined fabric was seen on Prada’s eveningwear catwalks in 2000. However, the surface area of the material – 8qm – represents Lenin’s 1917 declaration of the habitable area allocated per Soviet citizen – anything more would become subject to redistribution. While the work functions as a stand-alone textile sculpture, it is the small “Lenin” tag stitched on the underside that generates the uncomfortable juxtaposition between consumer luxury and socialist pragmatism.

—Alicia Reuter