Terje Nicolaisen

Since he departed the academy of fine arts in bergen in 1997, Terje Nicolaisen has been engaging himself with a lot of different displines and discussions, always with a problematic attitude towards the artscene and the consept of art. As a matter of fact, in his final month of the academic training, he already was doing this spot-on, inviting himself to participate in the prestigious Projekte in der Stadt Münster. Of course, he was not welcomed to do so, and he decided that he would run a Parallell Projekte in der Stadt Münster, following the schedule of the larger show, releasing his home-made press- release and offset printed catalogue, where he presented no less than five project for Münster, all exept one unrealised projects.

Typical of his activity, Nicolaisen is almost obliged to make a problem when asked to do a project. There is, however, common denominations to be extracted from his strategies;

In his public projects as well as gallery and museum installations, it seems as if his goal is to un-visualize the art he is making, that is to say, he want the public to discover his art first as something commonplace, as something ordinary, that when reflecting on it, the viewer does not look at the piece as art, but as a kind of displaced reality.

To achieve this effect he uses materials and found objects from the site in question. This is not such an original take but rather a well known predomination of the Sitespecific – only Nicolaisen does it for several reasons. He insist on applying a miming commitment in the fashionate attitude of ecological thinking onto the process, so he wants as much of the materials a possible to go back to it’s original form or function after serving as vehicle for one of his peculiar ideas.

Awardwinning and very much appreciated for his non-pretencious way of working, Terje Nicolaisen keeps pushing that borders of the institution and categories of art, as if the performative act of being an artist itself is the core of his production. In his essay The Dérive in Terje Nicolaisens Paractice, Gardar Eide Einarsson suggests that this particular shift in strategies and visual identity, represents a dérive where the city is replaced by the artworld and that this is in opposition to what seems to be the norm in art, a sequencial comrehensive line of production.

His reasons for taking on this careerwise unsmart attitude is founded on the idea that art must be independent and open in every aspect. This consistent but still open approach, to any kind of space, context or artworld situation enables him to maintain a position as the outsider, a position that in his search for the true and the real art is an advantage. In his Artist Statement Kunstnere i Offentlig Rom, published in Kunstjournalen B-post, he states that ” No artist can work independet in a commission whether is is a private or a pubic institution...” suggesting that artists should get paid a steady 6 year salary from Public Art Norway (KORO) without setting any limitations or demands on the artist. The artist simply continiues working as normal with his or her prosjects. And that this would be the only way KORO could achive their longterm goal on replacing Decorative Arts on public buildings, with contemporary art.

This almost insulting proposal is typical of Nicolaisens approach to a artistic issues, and it is touching one of his main directions, the pursue of the real. By suggesting and at some cases demanding the unreal and the utopian perspective, he brings his issue to topic.

Oslo 1. April 2009
Terje Nicolaisen