Announcement, the audio installation by artist Roman Ondák, uses the unit of time familiar to as “a minute of silence”, and charges it with new meaning that stands in contrast to the context in which it usually appears. In an audio recording that interrupts Slovakian radio broadcasts, Ondák asks listeners: “As a sign of solidarity with recent world events, for the next minute do not interrupt the activity you are doing at this moment”. In this work the artist emphasizes the disparity between the national/nationalistic time regime that imposes a minute of silence on the listener, and the subjective experience of time that is not subordinate to any external law. Ondák neutralizes this highly charged unit of time by means of an instruction that is universal and abstract on the one hand, but which cannot be un-followed on the other. In the Israeli context, replete with minutes of silence, this work receives special meaning that challenges the strong connection between the economy of memory and the national economy of time.
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