Roman Ondak‚ 'SK Parking', 2021

Installation, Level -2, Garage

“SK Parking” was originally shown in 2001, as part of the exhibition “Ausgeträumt...” at the Secession in Vienna. For the duration of the exhibition, Roman Ondak had parked several Škoda cars in the exclusive parking space behind the Secession building, right in the middle of one of the busiest places in Vienna. Being parked in the centre of Vienna, the cars stood out not just for their design and colouring, but also their Slovakian license plates.

20 years later, during the lockdown in spring 2021, “SK Parking” was unexpectedly on display again in a public space – this time in front of the Kunsthalle building in the centre of Bratislava. Once again, it became apparent that the cars from the 1970s and 1980s were a deviation from the normal, an interruption of everyday urban life. With their Czechoslovakian design and Slovak license plates, they reminded people in Bratislava of the radical socio-political transformations that determined their lives in post-1989 Eastern Europe.

Since June 2021 “SK Parking” is back in Vienna. Roman Ondak has donated the installation, which has become one of the most iconic works of Eastern European contemporary art, to the Kontakt Collection. In the parking garage of Erste Campus, amidst the cars parked there, Ondak’s work implies a further shift of meaning, drawing attention to the geopolitical space in which Erste Group operates.

Roman Ondak, born in Žilina, Slovakia in 1966, lives and works in Bratislava. Ondak’s oeuvre is characterized by an interventionist practice that subtly approaches reality in order to question and thus allow conscious perception of everyday experiential phenomena in an unconventional and poetic way. Ephemeral performances and direct interventions form the basis of his site-specific works. The artist also frequently initiates participatory projects involving amateurs. Roman Ondak’s works have been shown at renowned biennials and exhibition venues such as the 53th Venice Biennale, Manifesta 3 in Ljubljana, the 6th Berlin Biennale, the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and Tate Modern in London.