"A quick poison and a slow balm." Larte for Santiago Sierra

Santiago Sierra (Madrid, 1966) does not like to talk much about his work; he considers any form of explicitness almost a betrayal ofart. His works are entrusted with the task of revealing his very harsh view of the world and of art itself. Of the latter he gives a lapidary and unexpected definition: a quick poison and a slow balm. Artistic intervention is thus capable of striking instantly with its strong language, shocking the viewer and then, in the long run, acting as a cure to a distorted society steeped in inhuman dynamics. There is no trace of aesthetic complacency in Sierra’s work but, if anything, a cold observation of reality, which, as will be seen, begins with the titles of many of his works.

Sierra, after graduating in fine arts in Madrid and continuing his education in Hamburg, works internationally and mainly between Spain, Mexico (1995-2006) and Italy (2007-2010). The themes he addresses are clearly and explicitly linked to the economic and social mechanisms and policies of exploitation and marginalization enacted globally. On the other hand, the language used by Sierra, between actions and documentation of them, refers unequivocally to certain trends of the 1960s and 1970s, both in the minimalist aspect of some works (e.g. 111 construcciones hechas con 10 módulos y 10 trabajadores, 2004, or 7 formas de 60x60x600 cm construidas para ser sostenidas en perpendicular a la pared, 2010), as well as in the scope of environmental or sculptural works that resort to the use of words, bringing the mind back to the works of conceptual artist Joseph Kosuth.

In this regard, a very relevant part of Sierra’s work is linked to the word. We see this well in Palabra Destruida (2010-2012), for which the artist has ten monumental letters constructed in ten different countries, using characteristic materials, until the word “Kapitalism” is constructed. The same is then scenographically destroyed and presented as a video installation with ten channels side by side. Another example is the No Global Tour (2009-2017), which is the journey between different nations of the two letters N and O made of wood in large format (3 meters high and 4 meters wide) to rather explicitly symbolize the “negation of all affirmation,” as Mauro Zanchi called it, by way of a universal “icon of opposition” (Mauro Zanchi, Santiago Sierra. Accomplices of exploitation, “Doppiozero,” October 14, 2019). The peremptory affirmation of the No Global Tour is also embedded in a very particular and explanatory work with respect to the artist’s stance towards the pre-established powers. Indeed, in 2010, Sierra rejected in a letter, which later became a work of art for sale(La venta de la renuncia, 2011), the prize money associated with a plastic arts award intended for him. Addressing his words to Ángeles González-Sinde, then Minister of Culture in Spain, Sierra states that accepting the sum of money would have constituted for him a heavy renunciation of his freedom as an artist as well as his effective connivance with the state, systematically engaged against the common good. He concludes his letter this way, “The state is not all of us. It is you and your friends. Therefore do not consider me one of them, because I am a serious artist. No gentlemen, No Global Tour. Cheers and freedom!”

Santiago Sierra, 111 construcciones hechas con 10 módulos y 10 trabajadores (2004; analog photography; Cáceres, Centro de Artes Visuales Fundación Helga de Alvear)

Santiago Sierra, 7 formas de 60x60x600 cm construidas para ser sostenidas en perpendicular a la pared, performance at Kilchmann Gallery, Zurich, April 2001 (2001; chromogenic photography, 230 x 150 cm; Mexico City, Fundación Jumex)

Santiago Sierra, Palabra Destruida (2010-2012)

Santiago Sierra, No (2009; painted wood, 264 x 470 x 225 cm)

Returning to Sierra’s use of words, Kelly Baum’s reading is also very interesting, taking up the theory of language expounded by John Austin in the 1960s in his essay How to do things with words(Kelly Baum, Santiago Serra: How to do things with words, “Art Journal,” winter 2010). The scholar shows how Sierra’s work can be considered a true linguistic act, gaining strength precisely at the moment when it appears, so assertively, to unveil the perverse mechanisms on which current politics, economic logics and relationships more generally are based. In reference to Sumisión(antes Palabra de Fuego) (2006-2007),Baum in fact observes how the very materialization of the word on the U.S.-Mexico border stands at once as a declaration and an accusation that we do not know precisely to whom to address it.

At this point it is good to specify the modus operandi of the artist who, for the realization of his projects, makes use of paid workers who are entrusted with specific tasks, in a working relationship that again brings into play relationships of subordination. Particularly disturbing is the use of collaborators, often from minority or marginalized segments of the population, who are paid to perform actions that are in some cases humiliating. This situation then generates further short circuits where they encounter and interact with the elitist art world and its spaces. This is the case with Santiago Sierra invites you for a drink(2000) when, on the occasion of the Havana Biennial, the artist invites art enthusiasts to a terrace and provides them with wooden benches that in fact contain and hide Cuban prostitutes, paid 30 dollars; or in the same year, Persona remunerada para limpiar el calzado de los asistentes a una inauguración sin el consentimiento de éstos (2000); Línea de 160 cm tatuada sobre 4 personas (2000); 10 personas remuneradas para masturbarse (2000). The didactic clarity of Sierra’s titles describes the required action in these works: people paid to clean the footwear of unsuspecting attendees at an art gallery opening, people paid to be tattooed or to masturbate in front of a camera, thus laying bare contradictions inherent in economic relationships but also the controversial role of art in shining a spotlight on issues with rather unsettling works.

Santiago Sierra, Sumisión (antes Palabra de Fuego) (2006-2007)

Santiago Sierra, Línea de 160 cm tatuada sobre 4 personas, performance in Salamanca, El Gallo Arte Contemporanea, December 2000 (2000; video, projection or monitors, black and white and sound, duration 63’; London, Tate Modern)

Santiago Sierra, Los perros atenienses (in memoriam kanelos y Lukanikos) (2015)

Santiago Sierra, Cerdos devorando la península ibérica (2012)

Alongside the use of speech and the use of bodies and people, Sierra resorts on several occasions to the collaboration of animals, such as in the project Los perros atenienses (in memoriam kanelos y Lukanikos) (2015), which involved some stray dogs being made to wear a harness with the words “No tengo dinero,” or in Cerdos devorando la península ibérica (2012) where pigs devoured feed arranged to form in that case the outline of the Iberian Peninsula, in other cases that of other geographical areas, including Italy itself. In these actions, the symbolic dimension of Sierra’s work takes on an even stronger significance. One of the most significant works in this sense is the one that gives the title to the 2016 exhibition at Prometeo Gallery in Milan. The exhibition The Watering trough staged several elements starting with the video shot partly at the Karni Mata Temple in Deshnoke (Rajasthan), where mice are considered sacred, and partly at the Centrale Fies in Trento in 2015, in which on a black-and-white checkered floor a swastika served as a watering trough for the multitude of mice that, under the gaze of some spectators, drew from the milk made available to them. The Milan event was also accompanied by some photographs, the trough placed on a pedestal and a gastronomic moment based on cuy, guinea pigs normally bred and used, in some countries, for scientific experimentation but also as a gastronomic specialty. Given the symbolic value of these mice for some populations, of milk, which is white and therefore often associated with virtues such as innocence and purity, of the use of the swastika, a very ancient and auspicious symbol, Sierra blends different cultures and different points of view making the deciphering of intrinsic meanings complex. Fernando Baena in Cannibalism under the Sign of Saturn, a text written for the exhibition, highlights how the keys to interpreting this work are multiple yet all traceable within “symbologies related to the construction of the world, the cycle of life and death, and human desires as obstacles to be overcome.”

Within a work that is prolific, problematic, and to which we can assign different readings, the artist’s words intervene to clarify at least one aspect: “the happy ending invalidates any proposal,” his work “poses unresolved problems, open to thinking in freedom” (Zanchi, 2019). Perhaps in this direction also goes Sierra’s ambiguous invitation, which, with the claim “We want your blood.”

intended to collect the blood of the indigenous peoples of Australia. This would later be employed to stain the British flag in the Union Flag project (2021), in a
clear condemnation of the violence perpetrated as part of colonial experiences to the detriment of entire cultures. The operation, following protests, was later withdrawn showing, however, how the artist’s work went on to touch unresolved political and cultural issues and spark a new debate.

Warning: the translation into English of the original Italian article was created using automatic tools. We undertake to review all articles, but we do not guarantee the total absence of inaccuracies in the translation due to the program. You can find the original by clicking on the ITA button. If you find any mistake,please contact us.