Roman Ondak - Musée d'Art Moderne - Ville de Paris

L’ARTISTE
“I think that I was creative from an early age, but I suppose one can say that about every
child. What I remember is that I wanted to change many things around me, to transform them
into something else. There’s a story from my childhood my parents like to tell: when I was
only tree years old I destroyed part of a wooden floor in the house by hammering fifty or so
nails into it in order to make a small fence for a little garden. Actually my parents weren’t
upset by this; rather they were quite surprised that despite my young age the fence had a
very orderly, rectangular shape. This story says something about how my parents supported
me in creating my own freedom and universe as an artist from the very beginning. During the
1970s and 1980s, all this inner idealism was slowly ground down and eroded by communist
corruption and the tricks of propaganda. So the belief that I could someday become an artist
seemed too idealistic.”
Roman Ondák Notebook, 2012, published on the occasion of the "Artist of the Year 2012" prize
awarded to him by the Deutsche Bank for his artistic work. Edited by Deutsche Bank, page 13.
« […] il (Roman Ondák) nous plonge en pleine période communiste et nous raconte
l’histoire de cet étudiant qui, une année après son entrée aux Beaux-arts de Bratislava, voit
le système renversé en novembre 1989, suite à la chute du mur de Berlin. « En deux mois,
tout a changé pour nous. Nous n’étions pas limités au réalisme et aux anciens, nous avions
le droit de faire des choix, mais aussi de découvrir l’art contemporain et l’art conceptuel,
interdits sous le communisme. » Dans cette période d’euphorie, il voyage, s’instruit, cherche
sa voie et se passionne pour le travail de Joseph Beuys et de Marcel Duchamp. Fasciné
comme ce dernier par les objets du quotidien, il les place dans un autre contexte et les vide
de leur matérialité. »
Article d’Anouchka Roggeman in L’œil, novembre 2012.
Service Culturel Musée d’Art moderne de la Ville de Paris