Roman Ondak: Swap. Performance at 14 Rooms

Roman Ondák’s work Swap was one of the most entertaining works that were presented at 14 Rooms, the Live Art exhibition that ran concurrently with Art Basel in Basel 2014. In this video we watch performer Tony Osborne swapping a key ring, a Müsli bar, sunglasses, 20 Swiss Francs, Roman Ondáks Art Basel photo ID, a visitor’s organ Transplant Card (almost), and a shirt cleaning service card. Includes the special appearance of some well-known art professionals…

About the work: A performer sits behind a table like a vendor, with an object he brings along. Once the first visitor enters the room, the performer tries to swap his object with any object the visitor might be carrying with him and which he is willing to give up in exchange for the performer’s object. This sets in motion an endless chain of barter and communication which will go on for the entire duration of the exhibition.

For ’14 Rooms’, curators Klaus Biesenbach and Hans Ulrich Obrist invited fourteen international artists to each activate a room, exploring the relationship between space, time, and physicality with an artwork whose “material” is the human being.

14 Rooms was presented by Fondation Beyeler, Art Basel, and Theater Basel. The curators Klaus Biesenbach and Hans Ulrich Obrist invited fourteen international artists to each activate a room, exploring the relationship between space, time, and physicality with an artwork whose “material” is the human being.

Roman Ondák: Swap, 2011. 14 Rooms Live Art Exhibition. Messe Basel, Basel (Switzerland), June 12, 2014.

More videos covering 14 Rooms coming soon, including an interview with Roman Ondák.

> Right-click (Mac: ctrl-click) this link to download Quicktime video file.

Posted in: art, Art Basel, Basel, no comment, VernissageTV