Santiago Sierra
Santiago Sierra
Santiago Sierra (Madrid, 1966) is one of the most controversial artists in the international art scene. He has become famous for his critique of the contractual economy through a series of remunerated actions where people – typically immigrants, casual workers, or even homeless wanderers – are paid to perform some pointless task which is then documented on video and through black-and-white photographs. Poor people and minorities are Sierra’s art supplies. He has them perform some of the most, humiliating and dangerous tasks. Example of these “performances” are Falling walls that are sustained by 5 Mexicans, Cubans youths who are tattooed with an ugly 250 cm line across their backs, and immigrants who are asked to sit in boxes for four hours.
By designing such intentionally pointless "jobs," Sierra highlights the disjunction between such workers and their work, showing labor as an imposed condition rather than a choice one makes. "The remunerated worker doesn’t care if you tell him to clean the room or make it dirtier," Sierra remarks. "As long as you pay him, it’s exactly the same. The relationship to work is based only upon money." Sierra's work is itself sometimes accused of being exploitative and of careerism masquerading as a mission. His art performances has also been seen as an attack on capitalism in general and the art world in particular, as irritant, as analysis. The participants in his pieces of art are always paid the local minimum wage, while Sierra’s documentation of the event can generate substantial financial gain both for the artist and the galleries that represents him.
His work, involving social or political structures, is intended to question established power relations, in the realm of art as well as society at large. In his works he directly questions viewers regarding the limits imposed by contemporary capitalist globalized society through themes of significant political and social connotations such as worker
Santiago Sierra (Madrid, 1966) is one of the most controversial artists in the international art scene. He has become famous for his critique of the contractual economy through a series of remunerated actions where people – typically immigrants, casual workers, or even homeless wanderers – are paid to perform some pointless task which is then documented on video and through black-and-white photographs. Poor people and minorities are Sierra’s art supplies. He has them perform some of the most, humiliating and dangerous tasks. Example of these “performances” are Falling walls that are sustained by 5 Mexicans, Cubans youths who are tattooed with an ugly 250 cm line across their backs, and immigrants who are asked to sit in boxes for four hours.
By designing such intentionally pointless "jobs," Sierra highlights the disjunction between such workers and their work, showing labor as an imposed condition rather than a choice one makes. "The remunerated worker doesn’t care if you tell him to clean the room or make it dirtier," Sierra remarks. "As long as you pay him, it’s exactly the same. The relationship to work is based only upon money." Sierra's work is itself sometimes accused of being exploitative and of careerism masquerading as a mission. His art performances has also been seen as an attack on capitalism in general and the art world in particular, as irritant, as analysis. The participants in his pieces of art are always paid the local minimum wage, while Sierra’s documentation of the event can generate substantial financial gain both for the artist and the galleries that represents him.
His work, involving social or political structures, is intended to question established power relations, in the realm of art as well as society at large. In his works he directly questions viewers regarding the limits imposed by contemporary capitalist globalized society through themes of significant political and social connotations such as worker