Roman Ondak Mars, 2022

An open transport crate, apparently filled with red soil, Roman Ondak's 2022 work Mars continues the artist's fascination with the red planet. In a classic gesture of conceptual art making, it is Mars by fiat. Having just arrived—or ready to be shipped—Mars becomes a box of alien soil and the red material evokes an imaginary connection between earth and the distant planet. An alternative reading, in an oblique reference to the large-scale recreation of a Martian landscape for his 2004 solo exhibition at the Kölnischer Kunstverein in Cologne, takes into consideration the markings on the crate from well-known art shipping company Hasenkamp: the crate may contain Ondak's Martian landscape itself.