Roman Ondak
Sated Table
Artist
Roman Ondak
(1966, Žilina), Slovak
Original Title
Sated Table
Date1997
Mediumsilkscreen print on cardboard, kitchen utensils, wooden table
Dimensions100 × 92 × 59 cm
Classifications
installations
Credit LineKunsthalle Praha
DescriptionRoman Ondak’s artistic practice is based on principles of relocation and duplication. His installations, performances, objects, and drawings commonly focus on the search for appropriate means of communicating an initial idea; the resultant form of expression is often marked by a performative dimension. His work, influenced by the legacies of conceptualism and minimalism, questions the functioning of society and institutions in today’s globalized world and reacts to the specific conditions of Central and Central-Eastern Europe. Ondak’s experience of life under the Communist regime made him vigilant toward political systems, understanding their strong influence on social behavior. He analyzes the failure of communism and searches for alternative social and political possibilities. His approach to these topics is indirect—he stirs the imagination of his viewers, giving them an opportunity to explore current societal conditions. His art combines mundane elements with poetic humor, providing space for the examination of established habits. Ondák often makes use of subtle interventions and incorporates active participation by viewers or selected individuals. His artistic interventions are based on slight manipulations of contexts, disrupting our conventional expectations and inviting us to recognize the functioning of the society and the system which surround us.
Sated Table (1997) comprises a wooden kitchen table with cooking equipment such as a whisk, a ladle, a bowl, a sieve, and a measuring cup, as well as various packs of baking ingredients. The writing on the packets, which at first glance look like butter, flower, or sugar, names famous philosophers such as Foucault, Hegel, Locke, and Schopenhauer. One packaging bears the name Marcel, referring to the French philosopher, playwright, and musician Gabriel Marcel (1889-1973), who was initially a proponent and later a critic of Christian existentialism. The name Marcel can also, however, be read as a nod to Marcel Duchamp, the pioneer of conceptual art and a strong influence on Ondak’s own practice. The names of philosophers listed on the packets are a reaction to the boom of classical literary and philosophical publications in Eastern Europe during the 1990s, following decades of omnipresent censorship. The content of this piece shares similarities with other works Ondák produced during this period, such as Taste of Thinking (1995) and Sated Library (1995), in which he thematized the mechanical production of baked goods, which can be interpreted as a metaphor for the consumption of knowledge. A similar idea underpins his piece Therapy (1997), where names on medicinal packagings were replaced with names of famous psychologists and psychoanalysts. The combination of different ingredients with the names of famous philosophers, as seen in the case of Sated Table, references the momentous societal transformations taking place in Eastern Europe during the 1990s—liberation from totalitarian censorship, the rise of new digital technologies, and the disruption of the existent world of existential certainty led to disillusionment as well as an oversaturation with information resulting in superficial perceptions, which paradoxically give rise to a society rooted in blind consumerism and hollow emptiness.
Roman Ondak (*1966, Žilina) is an internationally acclaimed artist based in Bratislava. From 1988 to 1994, he studied painting and graphic design at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bratislava. Later, he also attended study programs at the Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania, the Helveticum in Zurich, and the CAA in Kitakyushu, Japan, and received the DAAD scholarship in Berlin. His work has been shown in numerous group exhibitions at institutions such as the Tate Modern in London, the MALBA in Buenos Aires, the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, the MoMA PS1 in New York City, Kunsthalle Nurnberg, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, the ICA, and the Frankfurter Kunstverein. He has also exhibited at numerous international biennials such as the 50th and 54th Venice Biennale (2004, 2011), the 5th Moscow Biennale (2013), the 5th Liverpool Biennial (2008), the 8th Art Biennial of Panama (2008), the 27th São Paulo Biennial, and 1st Prague Biennale (2003).
Sated Table (1997) comprises a wooden kitchen table with cooking equipment such as a whisk, a ladle, a bowl, a sieve, and a measuring cup, as well as various packs of baking ingredients. The writing on the packets, which at first glance look like butter, flower, or sugar, names famous philosophers such as Foucault, Hegel, Locke, and Schopenhauer. One packaging bears the name Marcel, referring to the French philosopher, playwright, and musician Gabriel Marcel (1889-1973), who was initially a proponent and later a critic of Christian existentialism. The name Marcel can also, however, be read as a nod to Marcel Duchamp, the pioneer of conceptual art and a strong influence on Ondak’s own practice. The names of philosophers listed on the packets are a reaction to the boom of classical literary and philosophical publications in Eastern Europe during the 1990s, following decades of omnipresent censorship. The content of this piece shares similarities with other works Ondák produced during this period, such as Taste of Thinking (1995) and Sated Library (1995), in which he thematized the mechanical production of baked goods, which can be interpreted as a metaphor for the consumption of knowledge. A similar idea underpins his piece Therapy (1997), where names on medicinal packagings were replaced with names of famous psychologists and psychoanalysts. The combination of different ingredients with the names of famous philosophers, as seen in the case of Sated Table, references the momentous societal transformations taking place in Eastern Europe during the 1990s—liberation from totalitarian censorship, the rise of new digital technologies, and the disruption of the existent world of existential certainty led to disillusionment as well as an oversaturation with information resulting in superficial perceptions, which paradoxically give rise to a society rooted in blind consumerism and hollow emptiness.
Roman Ondak (*1966, Žilina) is an internationally acclaimed artist based in Bratislava. From 1988 to 1994, he studied painting and graphic design at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bratislava. Later, he also attended study programs at the Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania, the Helveticum in Zurich, and the CAA in Kitakyushu, Japan, and received the DAAD scholarship in Berlin. His work has been shown in numerous group exhibitions at institutions such as the Tate Modern in London, the MALBA in Buenos Aires, the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, the MoMA PS1 in New York City, Kunsthalle Nurnberg, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, the ICA, and the Frankfurter Kunstverein. He has also exhibited at numerous international biennials such as the 50th and 54th Venice Biennale (2004, 2011), the 5th Moscow Biennale (2013), the 5th Liverpool Biennial (2008), the 8th Art Biennial of Panama (2008), the 27th São Paulo Biennial, and 1st Prague Biennale (2003).
Otakar Kubín
