*1969, Zlaté Moravce. Lives in Bratislava.
Photographic Documentation and Archive of Manifesta 2:
Roman Mensing, Münster
Egon Grabstein's Helpless Joy (mixed media), 1998
"Egon Grabstein's Helpless Joy" by the Slovak artist Boris Ondreicka is a combination of bits and pieces drawn from stories and the media. In Bratislava, where he lives, Boris Ondreicka is a key figure in the new art scene, especially since he has created an autonomous arts centre on a boat. He is concerned with the fragmented presence of reality in the media, and the environment they act upon, as well as with the search for a critical and political conception of art and the role of the artist.
As if incendiary bombs would have destroyed all physical links, it is impossible to interpret and put together the pieces of the video film that is shown in a room partly painted in bright yellow, filled with neon tubes, a spiderweb, a screen and loudspeakers. At the artist's request, the basement room of the former warehouse and cold-storage depot has remained almost unaltered. His work is about the intervention in the metabolism of a world drawn into an unstoppable whirl.
C.P.C.A. 12 rue du Puits, Bonnevoie
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