source: wentrupgallery

Olaf Metzel was born in 1952 in Berlin. From 1971-1977, he studied at Freie Universität Berlin and at Hochschule der Künste Berlin. After figurative work (Roter Beton, 1981), Metzel soon turned to spatial installations that right from the beginning were characterized by a special interest in socio-political questions (Türkenwohnung Abstand 12.000,- DM VB, 1982).
Olaf Metzel’s art appears to be aggressive, destructive, provocative. The works with the loaded titles are meant as explicit commentaries on political issues and their communication in the media, but also on a saturated art world that seems to already have conceived and seen everything.
Metzel sees art as a form of interference, as action, and thus also draws attention to its action-linked potential: In his probably best-known installation 13.4.1981, which was accompanied by harsh protests, as part of the Berlin Skulpturenboulevard 1987, Metzel refers to the demonstration on 12/13 April 1981 that took place in reaction to the false report of the death of the incarcerated RAF-prisoner Sigurd Debus. The artist assembled the red-and-white police barriers, positioned at the same place opposite Café Kranzler, into a tower-like sculptural body.
Metzel’s concern is the potential of sculpture in public space. He uses barriers or stadium chairs, objects that are usually present in an urban context that have symbolic value, places them in public spaces, and forces people to react – in the case of the Berlin installation mentioned above, the reaction was that the Berlin government had it removed. However, calling them critical commentaries of current events or manifestations of protest does not exhaust the interpretation of his works. Rather, behind the spirit of Metzel’s works, which often appears to be critical and destructive and which frequently involves a controlled destruction by the artist’s hand (Idealmodell PK, 1987; Laborprobe, 1990; Milieufragen, 2007), there is also an aesthetic dimension and an artistic self-interrogation: the subtle composition of frequently specially constructed objects, their formation, formats, and materiality in their site-specific context reveals both destructive and constructive aspects.

Olaf Metzel had his first solo show in 1982 in West Berlin, with numerous subsequent solo exhibitions both in Germany and abroad. In 1987, he was a participant in Documenta 8 in Kassel, and in 1987 and 1997 he was part of the exhibition »Skulptur.Projekte Münster.« In 2006, he acted as the curator of the exhibition »YBA – Young Bavarian Art« at Gagosian Gallery, Berlin, a project that was part of the Berlin Biennale and initiated by Maurizio Cattelan, Massimio Gioni and Ali Subotnick.

Works of Olaf Metzel are amongst others part of the collections of Bayrische Staatsgemäldesammlung,Munich, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, HamburgerKunsthalle, Collection Deutsche Bank, Sammlung Falckenberg, Sammlung Ackermans.
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source: artsynet

With an eye trained to the sociopolitical issues of his time and a focus on the complexities of German history and culture, Olaf Metzel creates controversial and ambitious public artworks. He repurposes politically charged urban detritus into symbolic and often aggressive monuments that can be so divisive that they are quickly dismantled or vandalized. Since abandoning figurative work in the early 1980s, Metzel rose to fame following his sculpture 13.4.81 (1987), a tower of piled-up police barriers placed in Berlin; the name referenced the date on which violent protests erupted in Germany in the wake of false media reports that the incarcerated RAF member Sigurd Debus had died. Shortly after its construction, it was ordered dismantled by the Berlin Senate. Other works, such as the life-size nude figure Turkish Delight (2006), have been vandalized. Despite this, Metzel has continued to be inspired by taboo political subjects and has shown in museum collections across Germany.
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source: facebook

Bekannt geworden ist Metzel durch seine Interventionen im öffentlichen Raum, die sich als direkte Re-aktion auf das politische und soziale Zeitgeschehen seiner Gegenwart beziehen. Seine Arbeiten spiegeln die politische Situation Nachkriegs-deutschlands. Sein Frühwerk beschäftigte sich vor allem mit der jüngsten Vergangenheit Deutschlands, wie der Senatspolitik im noch geteilten Ber-lin, Stammheim und RAF oder dem Rassismus in Politik und Gesellschaft.

Metzels künstlerische Praxis spiegelt seine gesamte Radikalität, die Zer-störung als ästhetisches Programm in seine bildhauerische Technik zu überführen. Das Konzept der Interaktion mit Raum, Zeit und Bewegung übersetzt der Künstler in seinen Skulpturen in einen direkten Dialog mit dem Betrachter, um die Kunst sprichwörtlich am Leben partizipieren zu lassen, sie aus dem Leben wachsen zu lassen. Hieraus versteht Metzel sein Kunstwollen als Geste von „unten“, eben nicht ausschließlich für eine elitäre Schicht Kunst zu machen. Mit seiner direkten Sprache, die er unvermittelt in den öffentlichen Raum kommuniziert, übertritt er bewusst Grenzen und provoziert Dialog und Protest.