Roman Ondák

Berlin-based Roman Ondak appropriates and stages everyday situations in the context of art. He aims at capturing mundane moments--often invisible or hard to detect without his intervention--that contain the essential ingredient of hope, perhaps conveying the idea of a dream that one carries throughout the course of one's life. Ondak "translates" these moments into performative situations through which ordinary "non-events" can take a subtle detour, change the course of things. For example, his 2003 piece, "Good Feelings in Good Times," consists of an orderly line of six people who simply pretend to wait. By activating performative territories, Ondak circumscribes potential aesthetic, social and political possibilities onto mundane public routine.