Roman Ondak

• 03.06.–30.07.2005

Five hundred Japanese steelworkers received a chocolate bar from Roman Ondak, along with the request that each recipient makes a sculpture out of the aluminium foil. On an over-sized table in the main space at Galerie Martin Janda, Roman Ondak now presents hundreds of metal foil objects (Passage, 2004): small figures, absurd animals, cubes, abstract shapes. A 35-part photo series documents the origins of these works.

At first glance Ondak’s works seem simply constructed – intelligible processes and clear results. Upon closer inspection the multi-faceted nature of Ondak’s strategy unfolds: complex relationships, humorous paradoxes, observations of the society are packed in lucid articulation. In Passage these are, for instance, the playful manipulation of the workers’ own product, which many of the employees never come into contact with, the Japanese predilection for chocolate and the hierarchical structure of Japanese society, as shown in the example Nippon Steel. As soon as the project was approved by the management there was incredible readiness on the part of the workers to participate. The formal realization of the instructions was as precise as was the task at hand.

Ondak, who lives and works in Bratislava, has received acclaim for his interventions in the exhibition context. For the entire length of the exhibition Ausgeträumt (2001), he parked a large number of Skoda automobiles at the back side of Vienna’s Secession Building. In the tent at the art fair frieze in London (2004), queues formed – in accordance with the artist’s specific instructions – in front of various locations.

In his personal at Galerie Martin Janda (June 3 to July 30, 2005) Roman Ondak is showing two installations, a wall piece, one drawing series and one photo series. The instructions, which are carried out by third parties, are the common thread of these works. The artist reserves a short moment before the completion of the work for its realization, and limits his rôle to conceptualization and presentation.