Roman Ondak, Parallel Worlds, 2022, acrylic paint on wood, 21 x 31 x 8 cm

Roman Ondak’s practice brings together various methodologies, from simply formulated situations in which he binds relationships between members of his family, various groups of people or spectators entering his exhibitions, to modified found objects or constructed spatial installations. Space and time are often systematically thematised in his works and intertwined with his personal history, bearing fragments of his memories of the years he spent as a child and teenager in relatively isolated Czechoslovakia during the autocratic communist regime.

Ondak grew to understand society’s attempt to order existence through divisions and classifications of inclusion and exclusion. This structure’s failure is what the artist questions in his work by revealing the potential of other orders, other patterns of behaviour, and, ultimately, alternative social and political possibilities. The impression that his work often gives, of reality [...]

Installation view, Van Abbee Museum, 2021, Photo: Joep Jacobs.

Experience art by smelling, touching, hearing and seeing
Curators: Charles Esche, Diana Franssen, Steven ten Thije

Multi-sensory collection presentation
Featuring 120 pieces of art and spanning all five floors of the museum’s collection wing, Delinking and Relinking invites you to experience art differently. Sometimes in the literal sense, by touching, smelling or listening to it; other times metaphorically, by giving expression to different, lesser-known voices. Mostly inspiring and occasionally confrontational, Delinking and Relinking spans more than a century of art history, with Hommage à Apollinaire by Marc Chagall from 1913 as earliest work and This Means Tableau from 2019 by Laure Prouvost as most recent work.

Multi-sensory
With over 25 multi-sensory tools, including texts in Braille, scent interpretations, tactile drawings [...]