Art Encounters 2017 Exhibitions:
Home, Sweet Home

Roman Ondak (b. 1966) presents elements of everyday life in an artistic context, bringing forward new approaches on social interaction, creating what would be called relational art. Following his guidance, viewers, acquaintances and family members are playing an indispensable role in his work, alongside the involvement of their own creativity as a part of the process.

Selected exhibitions: History Repeats Itself, Kunsten Museum of Modern Art, Aalborg (2017, solo); Travellers, Museum of Estonia Foundation, Tallinn (2017); No Place Like Home, The Israel Museum, Jerusalem (2017); The Source of Art is in the Life of a People, South London Gallery (2016-2017, solo); Constellations, Tate Liverpool, Liverpool (2016); Storyboard, Times Museum, Guangzhou (2015, solo); Une histoire, Centre Pompidou, Paris (2014); Escena, Palacio de Cristal, Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid (2013, solo); Roman Ondak, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (2012, solo); Enter the Orbit, Kunsthaus, Zürich (2011, solo); The Exhibition Vanished without a Trace, Museo Tamayo, Mexico (2011, solo); Shaking Horizon, Villa Arson, Nice (2010, solo); Loop, Czech and Slovak Pavilion, 53th Venice Biennale (2009, solo); Measuring the Universe, Museum of Modern Art, New York / DAAD Gallery, Berlin (2009 / 2008, solo); It will All Turnout Right in the End, Tate Modern, London (2006, solo); Through the Eyes Lens, Ludwig Museum, Budapest (1999, solo).

He participated in important international exhibitions such as the 10th Gwangju Biennale (2014), the 54th and the 50th Venice Biennale (2011 / 2003), the 27th São Paulo Art Biennial (2006) and Manifesta 1 (Rotterdam, 1996).

Roman Ondak considers the exhibition space as a place where the individual experience combines with social practices. Through installation or performance, his work involves the spectator, requiring a two-sided approach by questioning individual perception, and the consciousness of social codes and behaviors. His “micro settings” question the spectator’s approach and processes of reception. The exhibition space becomes a forum for new experiences, one that questions representation and interpretation, as well as the notion of reality and the immediate context.

Our Son Watching His Parents documents the brief act of a mutual gaze between two adults (Roman Ondak and his wife) with their child. The artist attempts to capture the content from his child’s point of view, lying down, from the way he perceives reality while not yet capable of formulating his perspective with words. Roman Ondak then places the camera on a cushion, directly beside his child’s face, as a second pair of eyes, to capture what can be “a replica of his view”.

Images:

1. Roman Ondak, Portrait

2. Roman Ondak, Our Son Watching His Parents (1998), inkjet art print on Hahnemuhle paper, 33,5 x 50 cm, edition of 5 (+ 2 A.P.), courtesy of: Roman Ondak, GB Agency, Paris