"The 2012 Deutsche Bank artist of the year is Roman Ondák, who was born in Žilina in 1966. Ondák, one of Europe's most exciting contemporary artists, was selected on the recommendation of the Deutsche Bank Global Art Advisory Council, consisting of the renowned curators Okwui Enwezor, Hou Hanru, Udo Kittelmann, and Nancy Spector. Ondák manages to question everyday reality with reduced and often rudimentary means. The basis for most of his subtle, sharp-witted works is in fact paper, on which he records his concepts and project drafts. his interventions ususally occur in place where art is shown, sold, or represeneted".--P. 7.

Exhibited at the Czech end Slovak Pavilion at the 53rd Venice Biennale

Ondák's artistic production consists in an analysis of the several facets of daily life, in its less loud details and in its more ordinary aspects, which emerge from the blurry background to which they seem to be doomed.The artist catches imperceptible, invisible moments, actual 'non-events', which suddenly become visible and feasible thanks to slight changes or small gaps of the point of view.He strengthens the most innocent, common or familiar side of things putting into them an imaginative charge which works on many levels - aesthetic, social and political, visual, conceptual - and transforms our everyday scenario into a continuous source of wonder.Conceived by Ondák himself, this 'artist's book' is published on the occasion of three European exhibitions in 2010-11: Roman Ondák: Shaking Horizon at Villa Arson, Centre national d'artcontemporian, Nice, 2010; Roman Ondák: Before Waiting Becomes Part of Your Life at SalzburgerKunstverein, Salzburg, 2010; and Roman Ondák: Eclipse at Fondazione Galleria Civica, Centro di Ricerca sulla Contemporaneita, Trento, 2011.

Pursuing a new and timely line of research in world art studies, Humor in Global Contemporary Art is the first edited collection to examine the role of culturally specific humor in contemporary art from a global perspective. Since the 1960s, increasing numbers of artists from around the world have applied humor as a tool for observation, critique, transformation, and debate. Exploring how humorous art produced over the past six decades is anchored in local sociopolitical contexts and translated or misconstrued when exhibited abroad, this book opens new conversations regarding the functioning of humor and the ways in which art travels across the globe. With contributions by an impressive array of internationally based scholars covering six major continental regions, the book is organized into four distinct geographical sections: Africa and the Middle East, Asia and Oceania, South and North America, and Europe. This structure highlights the cultural specificity of each region while the book as a whole offers a critical perspective on the postcolonial, globalized art network. Reflecting on present-day processes of globalization and biennialization, which confront viewers with humorous art from a variety of cultures and countries, this book will provide readers with a culturally sensitive understanding of how humor has become vital to many contemporary artists working in an unprecedentedly interconnected world.

Slovakian artist Roman Ondák (born 1966) is well known for his interventions in exhibition rooms and architectural spaces, extracting everyday objects and found images and repositioning them in (sometimes participatory) installations. This monograph examines Ondák's work, with previously unpublished images from his archive.