Kaldor Public Art Project 28: Roman Ondak

Overview

In the wake of the unprecedented success enjoyed by blockbuster performance art installation 13 Rooms, earlier this year, Kaldor Public Art Projects in collaboration with Sydney Festival presents its 28th project, featuring internationally acclaimed artist, Roman Ondak.

The project installed in Paramatta's historic Town Hall, will comprise of three installation and performance works.

Measuring the Universe, first exhibited at MoMA in 2007, was subject to immense public and critical acclaim. Astounding in its simplicity, the viewer enters the space and is invited to have their name, height and date of attendance recorded on the wall. Over time, a mass of sharp black lines evolves, resembling a swarm of bees, thousands of people having literally made their mark on the installation.

Swap is a performance work featuring an interactive chain of barter and exchange that was a hit at 13 Rooms. Presented with a performer, an object and a table, the viewer is given the opportunity to swap the object with anything else they would be willing to exchange. Whether you part with a sentimental object or gain someone else's, Ondak is pondering patterns of ritual and modes of interaction.

The third work to be unveiled is Terrace, a new work featuring a reproduction of the artist's home in Bratislava, Slovakia.

The merging of art and everyday life is at the heart of Ondak's practice, which frequently invites a high level of audience participation. His installations are humorous and thought-provoking musings that question how we interact with the world.